Questions and Answers 



DC 



COVERING 



THE HISTORY OP 

fRANCE 



AND THE CAUSES OF THE 
WORLD WAR 



BY 



PROR JAMES B. TAYLOR, A. M. 

Head of History Department in Huntington School 
Northeastern College 



SUPPLEMENTARY TO 

THE WORLD'S HISTORY AT A GLANCE 



THE BALL PUBLISHING COMPANY 

BOSTON, MAS& 




Class ~:t ' i5 _ 

Book _IL1^ 

Gcpiglitl^" 

CDPMRIGHT DEPOSIT 



Questions and Answers 

COVERING 

THE HISTORY OP 

TRANCE 



AND THE CAUSES OF THE 
WORLD WAR 



BY 



PROR JAMES B, TAYLOR, A. M. 

Head of History Department in Huntington School 
Northeastern College 



SUPPLEMENTARY TO 



THE WORLD'S HISTORY AT A GLANCE 



THE BALL PUBLISHING COMPANY 

BOSTON. MAS& 




©CU473285 

Copyright. 1917, by The Ball Publishing Company 

SEPH I9I7 "i^J 



The Government of France 

Although the present form of government in France, 
usually known as the Third Republic, was proclaimed on 
the downfall of Napoleon III, in September, 1870, and 
really began with the election to the presidency of Louis 
Adolph Thiers in August, 1871, it was not until 1875 that 
the present constitutional form of government was es- 
tabHshed and modifications to this constitutional law 
were made in 1879, 1884, 1885 and 1889. 

Under the constitution the legislative power is vested 
in the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, and the execu- 
tive power in the President of the Republic and the Cabinet 
or Ministry. 

The President of the Republic is elected for a term of 
seven years by an absolute majority of the votes of the 
National Assembly, composed of the two legislative cham- 
bers in joint session. There is no vice-president and, in 
the case of death, resignation, or removal of the president 
during his term of office, a new session of the National 
Assembly elects his successor for a full term of seven 
years. 

The president promulgates the laws passed by both 
chambers of the Congress and executes them. He ap- 
points all civil and military officers, has the right of 
individual pardon, concludes treaties with foreign powers, 
but ^the approval of the legislature is necessary for any 
treaties which affect the area of France or of the French 
colonies; and the previous assent of both chambers is 
required to enable him'^^to declare war. He can dissolve 
the Chamber of Deputies at any time by the consent of 
the Senate, thus requiring a new election for the lower 
house. Every act of the president requires countersign- 
ing by the proper minister in his Cabinet. 

The present President of the Republic (1917) is M. 
Raymond Poincare, born in 1858 and elected to the 
presidency January 17, 1913. 

The salary of the president is 600,000 francs (about 
$114,000) per annum, with an additional expense allow- 
ance of equal amoimt. 



4 HISTORY OP PRANCE 

The Ministry, or Cabinet of the president, is appointed 
by the president, its members generally being selected by 
him from the two legislative chambers, although he some- 
times chooses for special office a minister who is not a 
member of either chamber; this is usually where a promi- 
nent general or an admiral is made minister of war or 
marine, and sometimes an eminent civilian is minister 
of foreign affairs. While the appointive power is vested 
in the President of the Republic, the Premier, as President 
of the Cabinet, really chooses his colleagues with the 
approval of the president. Each minister with portfolio 
directs one of the great administrative departments, but 
there may be included in the Cabinet one or more emi- 
nent men who serve as ministers without portfolio. The 
Ministry as a whole is responsible for the general policy 
of the government, and each minister is responsible to 
the Congress for his acts in his own department. The 
number of ministers in the Cabinet is not rigidly fixed. 

The Cabinet consists of the following ministers : Foreign 
Affairs (the Prime Minister), Justice, Interior, War, 
Marine, Public Instruction, Finance, Colonies, Agriculture, 
Commerce and Posts and Telegraphs, Public Works, 
Labor. 

In the legislative branch of the French government 
the Chamber of Deputies, or lower house, is composed of 
deputies, one for each arrondissement (as the districts of 
the various departments of the country are called), but if 
the population of an arrondissement is in excess of 100,000 
it is divided into two or more constituencies, each return- 
ing one deputy. Each candidate must, within the fort- 
night preceding elections, declare his candidacy for one 
specific constituency and, as he can receive votes only from 
the electors of that constituency, multiple elections are 
rendered impossible. Deputies must be citizens and at 
least twenty-five years of age. They are elected for a 
term of four years by manhood suffrage of citizens twenty- 
one years old, not actually in military service, who can 
prove six months' residence in any one town or commune 
and are not otherwise disqualified. The votes are counted 
in each constituency and a commission of councillors- 
general, appointed by the prefect of the department, 
certifies the election of the deputy. The Chamber of 
Deputies verifies the powers of its members. 



HISTORY OF PRANCE 5 

The Chamber of Deputies sitting in 1917 was elected 
in May, 1914, and comprises 602 deputies. They are 
divided into parties as follows: Organized Radicals, 136; 
Democratic Left, 102; Organized Socialists, 102; AUiance 
Democratique, 100; Progressionists and Federated Re- 
publicans, 54; Action Liberale, 34; Independent Socialists, 
30; Right, 26; Independents, 18. 

The Senate, or upper house, is composed of 300 members, 
who are elected for a nine-year term, one-third of the 
body retiring every three years. A senator must be a 
citizen at least forty years old, and he is chosen by indi- 
rect election by an electoral body comprising delegates 
selected by the municipal council of each commune in 
proportion to the population voting together with the 
deputies, councillors-general and district councillors of each 
department. 

In this manner 225 of the senators are elected and, in 
accordance with the Constitutional Amendment of 1879, 
75 senators were elected for life, but by a Senate Bill of 
1884 it was provided that whenever a vacancy should 
occur among the life-senators his successor should be 
elected for an ordinary nine-year term and a drawing by 
lot should determine which department such a senator 
should represent. The Senate, sitting as a high court of 
justice, has exclusive jurisdiction over cases of attempts 
against the safety of the state or plots to change the form 
of government. The princes of deposed French dynasties 
are ineligible for election to either chamber of the legis- 
lature. 

The salaries of senators and deputies are each 15,000 
francs (about $2850) per annum, with a small annual 
allowance to cover necessary railway travel. The presi- 
dent of each chamber receives in addition an annual 
allowance for expenses of entertainment, of 72,000 francs 
(about $13,680). Since 1905 a pension fund for ex- 
deputies or their widows and orphans has been main- 
tained, supported by deductions from the pay of deputies 
and augmented by gifts or legacies. 

The President of the Republic is obliged to convene the 
legislature at any time if demand is made by one-half of 
the members of each chamber. Otherwise the two houses 
assemble regularly on the second Tuesday in January of 
each year, remaining in session at least five months of the 



6 HISTORY OP PRANCE 

year. The president can adjourn the two chambers for 
not more than one month, providing such adjournment 
does not occur more than twice in the same session. 
With the consent of the Senate, as has been said, the 
president may dissolve the Chamber of Deputies, thus 
requiring a new election for that body. 

Legislative bills may be originated in either chamber 
by the government or by private members. Government 
bills are referred to the proper bureau for examination; 
private bills to a commission of parliamentary initiative. 
But laws affecting finance must originate in and first be 
passed by the Chamber of Deputies. 

In addition to the two legislative chambers there has 
been maintained in France since its institution by Napo- 
leon I a special body known as the Council of State 
{Conseil d' Etdt). This is composed of councillors, masters 
of requests and auditors, all appointed by the President 
of the Republic. The minister of justice is, ex-ojfficio, 
president of the Council of State. This body passes 
opinion on such administrative questions as the govern- 
ment may submit to it; prepares rules for administrative 
process, and in administrative suits is the court of last 
resort. 

The Republic of France is divided for administrative 
purposes into eighty-six departments and the territory of 
Belfort. Since 1881 the three departments of Algeria have 
been for most purposes treated as part of France itself. The 
government of "each department is administered by its 
prefect, appointed by the government, who supervises the 
execution of the laws, issue's police regulations, nominates 
subordinate officers and controls all officials of the state 
in his department. He is assisted by a prefecture council, 
whose advice he may take or not as he chooses. Each 
ministry maintains in each department a local representa- 
tive to administer matters connected with its special 
bureau. The departments are subdivided into districts, 
or arrondissements, of which there are a total of 362. 
Each arrondissement has its sub-prefect, except those 
containing the capital of the department and the Depart- 
ment of the Seine (Paris). 

The commune is the limit of local government. These 
vary very widely in population and size. According to 
the census in 1911 there were 36,241. Of these only less 



HISTORY OF FRANCE 7 

than 5000 exceed 1500 inhabitants, and over half of them 
have less than 500. Only 134 exceed in population 
20,000. The executive officer of the commune is a mayor, 
elected by a municipal council, whose members are chosen 
by universal suffrage of Frenchmen twenty-one years of 
age with at least six months' residence in the commune. 
But no act of the municipal council is valid until ap- 
proved by the prefect and some acts also require the ap- 
proval of the President of the Republic. 

Paris is divided into twenty arrondissements, each of 
which has its own mayor, the prefect of the Depart- 
ment of the Seine acting as mayor of the city as a whole, 
although part of the mayor's duties are performed by the 
prefect of police. 

There are 2915 cantons, composed of an average of 
twelve communes, though some, the very large com- 
munes, are divided into several cantons. A canton is not 
an administrative division but has separate judicial offices 
under its justice of the peace. 

Each canton elects one member for the conseil of the 
arrondissement of which it forms a part, the chief func- 
tion of these conseils being the allotment of taxation among 
their cantons. A varying number of arrondissements 
compose the departments, each of which has its council- 
general, comprising one councillor for each canton, chosen 
by universal suffrage, one-half of the body being elected 
every three years. The council-general has authority 
over economical affairs of the department, roads, normal 
schools, poor relief and repartition of direct taxes among 
the arrondissements. Their decisions require the assent 
of the prefect and may be annulled by the President of 
the Republic. 

The educational system of France is very complete and 
efficient, its chief occupying a seat in the Cabinet of the 
President as Minister of Instruction. Since 1878 primary 
instruction has been thoroughly reorganized and great 
progress has resulted. Each department maintains two 
primary normal schools for male and female teachers re- 
spectively; and there are two higher normal schools for 
the training of professors for the departmental normal 
schools. Education is obligatory and absolutely free in 
all primary public schools. In France and Algeria for the 
year 1912-1913 there were 3976 infant schools, public and 



8 HISTORY OF FRANCE 

private, with 8738 teachers and 608,315 enrolled pupils; 
and 83,095 primary and higher schools, with 159,982 
teachers and 5,669,251 enrolled pupils; all of these being 
included in the grade of primary instruction. There are 
also excellent courses of instruction for adults conducted 
in the evening by teachers in their schools and a very com- 
plete system of popular lectures. The cost to the state 
of public primary instruction in 1913 was about 225,- 
000,000 francs (about $43,000,000). 

Secondary education is supplied by the state in the 
lycees, by the communes in the colleges, and by private 
individuals in endowed schools (ecoles libres). The course 
of study extends over seven years. In France and Algeria 
for the year 1913 there were for boys a total of 343 lycees 
and commercial colleges, with 100,203 pupils; for girls, 
193 lycees, colleges and secondary courses, with 38,358 
pupils. 

Higher education is supplied by the state in universities 
and special technical and professional schools, education 
at which is free, and by private faculties and schools. In 
1914 there were 42,037 students (of whom 35,849 were 
French) enrolled in the public establishments. All degrees 
are conferred by the state faculties. 

In national defense the French army consists of the 
metropolitan and colonial armies. Military service is 
compulsory and universal, no exemption other than phys- 
ical disability relieving from the duty. Liabihty to service 
extends from the age of twenty to forty-eight. The term 
of service in the active army is three years, beginning at 
the age of twenty. This is followed by eleven years in 
the reserve and seven years more in the territorial army, 
with a final seven years in the territorial reserve. The 
reserves of the active army are called upon twice during 
their term for four weeks' manoeuvres, the territorials only 
once for two weeks and the territorial reserves have no 
periodical training. Voluntary engagements for three, 
four or five years are encouraged especially for the colonial 
army. The peace establishment of the metropolitan and 
colonial armies in France in 1914 was 846,188. The esti- 
mate of the " Statesman's Year Book for 1916 " is that 
the French army in a war requiring the whole strength 
of the nation would muster about 1,380,000 men. 

The French navy is manned partly by conscription and 



HISTORY OF FRANCE 9 

partly by voluntary enlistment. The " Inscription Mari- 
time," which registers the names of all men and youths 
devoted to a seafaring life between the ages of eighteen 
and fifty, shows that France had a reserve of 114,000 men, 
of whom about 25,500 usually serve with the fleet. The 
conditions of service are similar to those in the army. 

The " Statesman's Year Book for 1916 " gives the fol- 
lowing as a summary of French warships, estimating 
known losses to June, 1916, and estimating for construc- 
tion in process: 

Complete at end of 
1915 1916 

Dreadnaughts 7 11 

Pre-dreadnaught battleships, including 6 

semi-dreadnaughts 21 20 

Pre-dreadnaught armored cruisers 19 18 

Protected cruisers 16 16 

Torpedo gunboats, etc 7 11 

Destroyers 87 84 

Torpedo boats 150 154 

Submarines 90 90 

During the war the French fleet has completely co- 
operated with the British navy in driving the German 
and Austrian warships from the ocean, and especially in 
patrolling the British Channel and the Mediterranean, 
blockading the Adriatic and transporting troops to the 
Dardanelles, Gallipoli and Saloniki. 

Questions and Answers 

1. How old is France? 

Ans. France, as such, may be said to have begun in 
the year 987, when Hugh Capet, Count of Paris and Or- 
leans, was made king by feudal chiefs, and founded the 
Capetian line of monarchs. 

2. Was France known to the Romans? 

Ans. France was very well known to the Romans as 
early as the second century B.C., but not under that 
name. 

3. Of what race were the people who lived in what 
is now France when Rome was in power? 

Ans. Julius Cassar's famous " Gallic Wars," read by 



10 HISTORY OP FRANCE 

thousands of school boys and girls every year, begins with 
the statement that " All Gaul is divided into three parts: 
one of these is Aquitania or Our Province, near the 
Mediterranean; one part the Belgas inhabit and the third 
part the Gauls or Celts." 

4. Are the Gauls, or Celts, of early France the same 
race as the Britons, or Celts, of early England? 

Ans. When Rome was rising to full power two or three 
centuries B.C., the Celts inhabited all western Europe; 
Celtiberians in Spain, through which the Ebro (Iberus) 
flows; Gauls, or Celts, in modern France; and Celts, or 
Britons, in England, It was to keep the latter from help- 
ing their kinsmen in Gaul that Caesar crossed the Channel 
in 55 and 54 B.C. 

5. How extensive were Cagsar's activities in Gaul, 
now France? 

Ans. In eight brilliant campaigns between 58 and 50 
B.C. Caesar subjugated three hundred tribes, eight hun- 
dred cities, and slew a million barbarians, or a third of 
the population, while he made another third prisoners. 
" Let the Alps now sink," exclaimed Cicero, on Caesar's 
return; " the gods raised them to shelter Italy from the 
barbarians; they are now no longer needed." This per- 
haps prompted Louis XIV's remark, " The Pyrenees are 
no more," when his grandson sat on the throne of Spain. 

6. What was the effect on Gaul of the Roman conquest? 

Ans. In the second century A.D. Gaul was the most 
populous of Roman provinces; in the fourth, it was one 
of the most civilized. Thus the blending of Roman civi- 
lization on the old Celtic stock produced a Gallo-Roman 
state with a culture quite different from the Hellenistic 
stamp in the eastern provinces and more like our modern 
conditions than like those of the ancient world. 

7. What was the last great success under this flourishing 
civilization? 

Ans. In 451, Aetius, a Roman general of barbarian 
birth, as were many of the later Roman generals and 
even emperors, with an army of Romans, Burgundians, 
and Visigoths (or Latins, Celts, and Teutons fighting side 
by side), defeated at Chalons-sur-Marne the hordes of 



HISTORY OF FRANCE 11 

the fierce Hun, Attila. That was the last victory of 
Rome in Gaul before her own fall twenty-five years later. 
It was to Aetius in Gaul that the Britons sent their 
petition for help when the legions of Rome had been 
withdrawn and the Picts and Scots from the north began 
to harass the enfeebled Celts of Britain. 

8. After the fall of Rome, what happened to Gaul, or 
France? 

Ans. Gaul, like all the rest of the western European 
Roman Empire, was speedily overrun by the invading 
tribes from Germany in the mighty drive of the Teutonic 
race. As the Goths invaded Italy, Spain, and Africa, and 
the Angles and Saxons invaded England, so the Burgun- 
dians and Franka invaded Gaul and conquered it. 

9. Who were the Franks? 

Ans. The Franks were a confederacy of Germanic 
tribes between the Rhine and the Harz Mountains which 
the Romans had attacked in vain and to whose persistent 
attacks they had sacrificed Belgium. The Salian Franks 
were the leading tribe and it was from the members of 
their most powerful family, descended from a legendary 
Merovaeus, sea king, that leaders were chosen by the 
free vote of all the warriors. 

10. When did the Franks take actual possession of 
modern France? 

Ans. After the fall of Rome, 476, Clovis, then chief 
of the~ Franks, conceived the idea of erecting a kingdom 
on the ruins of the Roman power. He crossed the Meuse 
and the Sambre, and gained a great victory over the 
Roman governor of Gaul at Soissons in 486. So fell the 
Roman power in Gaul after a most beneficial rule of 
over five centuries. 

11. What is the story of the vase of Soissons? 

Ans. After the great victory of Soissons, in 486, Clovis, 
the leader' of the victorious Franks, asked only for a 
beautiful vase in the division of the spoils. A hardy 
soldier protested against any favoritism, even to the chief, 
in place of the usual lottery and threw the vass on the 
ground, breaking it into many fragments. Clovis said 



12 HISTORY OF FRANCE 

nothing but, on the next parade and inspection of arms, 
declared the bold soldier's arms defective and split his 
head with his battle axe, exclaiming, " Thus didst thou 
to the vase of Soissons." 

12. What were the further results of Prankish in- 
vasion? 

Ans. Clovis extended his authority over the greate^ 
part of Gaul, reducing the various weaker Teutonic 
tribes that had invaded the country to the condition of 
tributaries. He then made Paris his capital, embraced 
Christianity, and gave France its name and its first dynasty 
of kings, the Merovingians, among whom Dagobert was 
a favorite name. This first dynasty of Frankish kings in 
Gaul lasted about a century and a half, but became 
speedily so inefficient as to be called " do-nothings." 

13. Who were the Burgundians? 

Ans, The Burgundians were one of the Teutonic 
tribes that spread over the Roman Empire. They settled 
in southeast Gaul, or France, from which fact we still 
have the name and history of Burgundy, sometimes sepa- 
rate, but more often, as now, a valuable part of France. 
The Burgundians were defeated by Clovis during the 
extension of his domain after the victory at Soissons. 

14. After the establishment of the Franks in place of 
the Romans in Gaul, what was the next marked event? 

Ans. In 732 the great Mohammedan invasion of Europe 
which had crossed the Straits of Gibraltar (so called from 
their leader, Tarik) and conquered Spain in 711, had now 
crossed the Pyrenees and reached the Loire in central 
France, but there, at Tours, in a three-day battle with the 
Franks under Charles, mayor or executive officer of the 
palace, the struggle between Christianity and the Moslems 
was settled in favor of the former faith. 

15. How long had the Franks been Christians before 
their contest at Tours with the Mohammedans? 

Ans. Just as Constantine, the first Christian Emperor 
of Rome, is said to have been converted by a vision of a 
cross in the sky when fighting for the throne in 313, so 
Clovis, when attacked in 496 by the Alemanni, one of the 
Teutonic tribes most feared by Rome before its fall, is 



HISTORY OF FRANCE 13 

said to have besought the God of the Christians for 
support in a doubtful battle and, winning the victory, 
was baptized with several thousands of his warriors. 

16. What were the results of the great Battle of Tours? 

Ans. Charles, or Karl, was called Martel, or the 
Hammer. His son, Pepin the Short, with the approval 
of the pope, whom he had helped against the Lombards 
of northern Italy, placed the last weak Merovingian king, 
Chilperic, in a monastery, where he could still comb his 
long golden hair, the only sign of royalty left to him, 
Pepin was then anointed and crowned king 752, the first 
of the Carlovingian line, so named after his father, Charles 
Martel, the victor at Tours, 732. 

17. Who was the most renowned of the Carlovingian 
kings? ' 

Ans. Charlemagne, the most prominent man in Europe 
at the beginning of the ninth century (possibly excepting 
the pope), was the son of Pepin the Short and ascended the 
throne of the Franks in 768. He ruled forty-six years and 
in that time so extended the bounds of his dominions 
that they embraced at his death the larger part of western 
Europe. He made fifty-two military campaigns, the chief 
of which were against the Lombards, Saracens, and Saxons. 
His domains included France, Germany, and a consid- 
erable part of Italy. He is the only king in all history 
dignified by having the title " the Great " welded into 
his name. 

18. - What was the most marked event in Charlemagne's 
career? 

Ans. On Christmas Day, 800, as Charlemagne knelt 
in the Cathedral of St. Peter at Rome, the pope, Leo III, 
approached him and, placing a crown of gold upon his 
head, proclaimed him Emperor of the Romans and the 
rightful and consecrated successor of Caesar Augustus, 
first Emperor of Rome, and Constantine, the first Chris- 
tian Emperor. Charlemagne declared afterwards that he 
was totally ignorant beforehand of the pope's intentions. 

19. What are some of the most interesting facts about 
the great Charlemagne? 

Ans. He was a most indefatigable worker and tired 
out all his subordinates by his ceaseless activity. He was 



14 HISTORY OF FRANCE 

the most energetic character in history between JuHus 
Caesar and Napoleon. While at meals he was read to or 
else held converse with learned men. He conquered the 
Lombards in northern Italy, placed the king in a monastery 
and the iron crown of Lombardy on his own head ; he con- 
firmed the grant of the Papal States given by Pepin to the 
pope after defeating the Lombards and thus laid the basis 
of the pope's temporal power. 

20. Who were Charlemagne's worst foes? 

Ans. The hardest foes to be subdued were the Saxons, 
almost the only German tribe that still retained idolatry. 
For thirty years Charlemagne carried on campaign after 
campaign against the Saxons, who, when reduced to tem- 
porary submission, would time and again revolt. At last, 
Charlemagne, angered beyond measure at their obstinacy, 
ordered forty-five hundred prisoners to be slaughtered, 
after which the Saxons yielded, accepting Charlemagne as 
their ruler and embracing Christianity. 

21. Why is the year 800 to be considered a very promi- 
nent one in the history of the Middle Ages, that run 
from 476, the fall of Rome, to the last half of the fifteenth 
century? 

Ans. Bearing in mind the coronation of Charlemagne 
on Christmas of that year by the pope at Rome as Emperor 
of the Holy Roman Empire of the West, we realize that 
this marks the full restoration of the authority of Rome, 
re-establishing there the seat of power for western Europe, 
which for over four hundred years had been at Constan- 
tinople. We see further that the Teuton is established as 
the dominant power in Europe rather than the Latin, but 
that while his fresh vitality and energy have prevailed 
over effete Roman civilization he has, in turn, absorbed 
much of the law and culture of the Roman and embraced 
Christianity with a childlike ardor impossiblein the worn- 
out race. Celtic and Teutonic virility are to give the world 
new standards and ideals, but softened and refined by 
Latin and Italian culture and traditions. 

22. Where did Charlemagne live? 

Ans. His favorite capital was Aachen, or Aix-la- 
Chapelle, in northwestern Germany near the Rhine. 
Within the cathedral, in a tomb which he had built, he 



HISTORY OF FRANCE 15 

was placed after his death in 814, upon a throne, with his 
royal robes around him, his sword by his side and an open 
Bible in his lap. He is the most imposing figure of the 
Middle Ages. He was a reformer and statesman, as well 
as a warrior. He founded schools, reformed the laws, 
collected libraries, aided the church; in short, laid the 
foundation of most that was noble and useful in the 
Middle Ages. 

23. What became of the mighty empire of Charle- 
magne? 

Ans. Like Alexander's mighty empire, the dominion 
of Charlemagne broke up within a few years after the 
founder's death. In 843, by the Treaty of Verdun, the 
empire was divided among his three grandsons, Charles 
taking France; Louis, Germany; while the imperial title; 
went to Lothaire with Italy, the valley of the Rhone, and a 
narrow strip of land from Switzerland to the mouth of the 
Rhine. 

24. What was the next change in France after its 
separation from the rest of Charlemagne's domains? 

Ans. The royal family of Charlemagne became extinct 
in the tenth century. The Northmen, who had made 
descents on the coasts of Gaul, even in Charlemagne's 
time, at last, in 918, obtained from Charles the Simple a 
considerable portion of the northwest part of Gaul under 
condition of homage and conversion. This was similar 
to the grants of Alfred to the Danes in England a short 
time before. These Northmen under RoUo soon became 
the famous Normans who conquered England in 1066. 

25. What was the general form of government when 
the kingdom of France began under Hugh Capet in 987? 

Ans. The feudal system was then in full swing. 
France was divided among nearly two hundred over- 
lords, all exercising equal powers of sovereignty; their 
vast estates were subdivided into about seventy thousand 
smaller fiefs. The holders of these petty estates were 
bound to serve and obey their overlords and the great 
nobles were in turn the sworn vassals of the French king. 
Many of these overlords were richer and stronger than 
the king himself and if they chose to cast off their alle- 
giance it was well-nigh impossible to control them. 



16 HISTORY OF FRANCE 

26. What were the principal evils of the feudal sys- 
tem? 

Ans. It rendered impossible the formation of a strong 
national government and it fostered a proud and op- 
pressive aristocracy, which ultimately was the cause of 
the French Revolution and the democracy of Napoleon's 
career. 

27. Were there any compensating good results in the 
feudal system? 

Ans. It developed individualism among its privileged 
members and a love of personal liberty, which was a promi- 
nent Teutonic trait. It prevented royalty from becoming 
as despotic as it would otherwise have been, or at least 
retarded its despotism. The castle and baronial hall 
developed poetry and romance as the cloister had favored 
learning and philosophy. And finally it developed a 
nice sense of honor and an exalted regard for women, both 
of which traits found expression in Chivalry. 

28. What were the main ideas of Chivalry? 

Ans. Chivalry, whose home, if not its cradle, was in 
France, was a military institution or order; its members 
were called knights and were pledged to the protection 
of the church, the weak and the oppressed. The institu- 
tion flourished from the eleventh into the fifteenth cen- 
tury. It colored all the events and literature of the latter 
half of the Middle Ages. The Crusades, the chief event of 
the age, were enterprises of Christian Chivalry. 

29. What, in a few words, were the Crusades? 

Ans. The Crusades were great military expeditions 
undertaken by the Christian nations of Europe to rescue 
the holy places of Palestine from the Mohammedans. 
There were four principal and four minor Crusades, not 
counting the Children's Crusade and other smaller expe- 
ditions, such as the suppression of the Albigenses in 
southern France. 

30. How large a share did France have in starting the 
Crusades? 

Ans. The First Crusade was the result of the earnest 
preaching in France and Italy of Peter the Hermit, of 
Picardy, France, a former soldier who had seen the in- 



HISTORY OF FRANCE 17 

suits heaped on Christian pilgrims by the Turks. The 
Turks were now advancing toward Constantinople, the 
capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, and the Greek 
emperor there had implored aid from the pope, Urban II. 
At a great council of the church held at Clermont, France, 
in 1095, the pope himself spoke eloquently, and the warm- 
hearted and martial Franks responded with one voice, 
" It is the will of God! It is God's will!" and thousands 
affixed the cross to their garments as a pledge of their 
engagement to go to the rescue of the Holy Sepulchre. 

31. How large a share did France take in the Crusades? 

Ans. Godfrey of Bouillon, was leader of the 700,000 
men in the First Crusade and after the conquest of 
Jerusalem became the head of the Latin Kingdom of 
Jerusalem. Louis VII led one of the two divisions in the 
Second Crusade. Philip Augustus was a leader in the 
Third Crusade and the saintly Louis XI led the Seventh 
and Eighth Crusades. 

32. What were some of the most prominent results 
of the Crusades? 

Ans. They kept Europe stirred up for two hundred 
years and cost several millions of lives beside incalculable 
cost and suffering. Disorder, license and crime accom- 
panied them, but, on the whole, they indirectly accom- 
plished more good than harm. They greatly increased the 
power of the church and of kings and of the people at 
the expense of the nobility. They delayed the capture 
of Constantinople for centuries. They liberalized the minds 
of the Crusaders and awakened mental activity, which 
developed commerce, geographical discovery, and learning. 

33. What was the Children's Crusade? 

Ans. In 1212, between the Fourth and the Fifth Crusades, 
a twelve-year-old peasant child in France named Stephen 
became persuaded that Christ had commanded him to 
lead a crusade of children to the rescue of the Holy Sepul- 
chre. The children flocked to his call in crowds, wildly 
excited. Many adults declared it the work of the Holy 
Spirit and quoted, " Out of the mouths of babes and 
sucklings thou hast ordained strength," and "A little child 
shall lead them." Others pronounced it the devil's work. 
Thirty thousand French children, mostly lads, but also 
many girls, set out for Marseilles as the port of departure. 



18 HISTORY OF FRANCE 

Those that sailed were betrayed and sold as slaves in 
Alexandria and other slave markets in the Mohammedan 
world they were to conquer. Fifty thousand German chil- 
dren crossed the Alps and marched down the Mediter- 
ranean shore looking for some miraculous pathway through 
the sea. From Brindisi two or three thousand sailing into 
oblivion " were never heard from more." Such were the 
ignorance, superstition, and fanaticism of the period. 

34. What was the crusade against the Albigenses? 

Ans. In the south of France a sect of Christians called 
Albigenses, from Albi, one of their cities, had departed 
from the common faith of the church and embraced 
social heresies to such an extent that Innocent III called 
on the French king and his nobles to suppress them. 
Their almost total extirpation gave the French crown 
large and rich territories in the south of France that were 
formerly the possession of the Counts of Toulouse. This 
crusade lasted from 1207 to 1229. 

35. What were the relations between England and 
France after the Norman Conquest of 1066? 

Ans. The Norman kings of England were still vassals 
of the king of France for their possessions in Normandy. 
However, when in 1154 Henry II, son of the Count of 
Anjou and Matilda of England, came to the English 
throne, he ruled over more territory in France than in 
England, as his father's domains of Anjou and France 
were added to Matilda's inheritance of Normandy and 
Brittany, and his French wife's dower gave him Aquitaine 
in the south of France. Almost all the western coast of 
France was in the possession of the forceful first Plantage- 
net king of England, but for it all he, of course, paid 
homage to the French king. Naturally the French king 
was ever watching for a pretext to regain the whole of 
France, and when in 1199 John succeeded Richard I on 
the English throne, the opportunity came. John was 
accused of murdering his older brother's son Arthur to 
deprive him of the throne and the charge was doubtless 
just. Philip Augustus of France, as John's feudal superior, 
ordered him to come and clear himself of the charge in 
France before his French peers. John refused and was 
then stripped of all his French possessions, except Aqui- 
taine. This accession of territory greatly strengthened 



HISTORY OF FRANCE 19 

the king of France and made him for the first time easily 
the superior of any of his vassals at the beginning of the 
thirteenth century. 

36. What was the States-General of France? 

Ans. In 1302 a dispute had arisen between Philip the 
Fair (1285-1314) and the pope respecting the control of 
the offices and revenues of the French church, and, in 
order to rally all classes to his support, Philip called an 
assembly to which he invited representatives of the 
burghers, or inhabitants of the cities; this added The Third 
Estate to the royal council of the nobles and the clergy, 
and the assembly henceforth is known as the States- 
General. It corresponds with the summoning of the 
House of Commons in England to meet with the king, 
clergy and nobles by Edward I in 1295, only seven years 
previous to the States-General in France. In time, the 
church, nobility, and monarchy go down before the third 
estate, just as in England clergy, nobles, and king have 
been forced to yield to the rising power of the House of 
Commons. 

37. What was the main event of the fourteenth century 
in France after the creation of the States-General in 1302? 

Ans. The great event for France, as for England, in 
the fourteenth century was the Hundred Years' War 
between the two countries. As related in the History of 
England in this series, when the last Capetian king, 
Charles the Fourth, died, Edward III, the flower of 
English chivalry, laid claim to the throne through his 
mother, Isabella, sister of Charles, as being nearer to the 
succession than Philip of Valois, cousin of Charles. 

38. What were the principal events of the Hundred 
Years' War? 

Ans. The brilliant English victory at Crecy, in 1346, 
followed by the capture of Calais, held afterwards by the 
English for two centuries; the English victory of Poitiers, 
in 1356, where, as at Cr6cy, the Black Prince, son of 
the English king, won great renown; and the Treaty of 
Bretigny, in 1360, marked the first period of the war. 
This was succeeded by a lull of over fifty years, when the 
war was renewed by Henry V of England in 1415 at 
Agincourt. 



20 HISTORY OF FRANCE 

39. "Who was Joan of Arc? 

Ans, Joan of Arc, the famous Maid of Orleans, was a 
simple shepherd peasant girl of eastern France, of very 
devout character, who seemed to see visions and thought 
she heard heavenly voices telling her to redeem her 
country from the English when they had well-nigh con- 
quered it and were besieging Orleans on the Loire in 
central France. 

40. What are a few of the details of her exploit? 

Ans. Like Paul on the road to Damascus, Joan " was 
not disobedient to the heavenly vision." She sought the 
priest of her native village; he sent her to the bishop; the 
bishop, convinced by her earnestness, commended her 
to the dauphin, Charles, the uncrowned heir of the insane 
Charles VI, who had recently died. She easily picked out 
the plainly dressed prince from his more gaudily dressed 
court, her services were accepted and, clad in white 
armor, mounted on a black charger, she was placed at 
the head of a French army to raise the siege. The impul- 
sive, highly imaginative French nation rose and followed 
her as they followed Peter the Hermit to the Crusades, 
as they afterwards followed Napoleon over all Europe. 
The siege was raised, the prince was conducted by the 
triumphant army to Rheims in northern France and 
crowned in the ancestral shrine of his ancestors. Then 
the voices ceased, the visions faded and Joan begged to be 
dismissed. 

41. What became of this remarkable girl? 

Ans. The new-crowned king deemed her altogether too 
valuable an asset to be released and required her further 
service. In a contest with the forces of Burgundy, who 
were allied to the English, Joan was captured and given 
over to the English. By them this girl of nineteen was 
tried as a witch and heretic, condemned and burnt at the 
stake in the market-place of Rouen, to the everlasting 
shame of English manhood. 

42. How has Joan of Arc been regarded by the French 
and others in more recent times? 

Ans. Joan of Arc has been regarded by the world at 
large and the French in particular as a saint, and on April 



HISTORY OF FRANCE 21 

18, 1909, after a careful and modern investigation of all 
the history and circumstances of her life, her solemn beati- 
fication put the official seal of Rome on a sanctity long 
recognized by the world. Ruskin's essay on her character 
is one of the best. 

43. How did the Hundred Years' War end and when? 

Ans. The second period of the war, begun at Agincourt 
by Henry V, in 1415, was halted by the Treaty of Troyes 
in 1420 but renewed by the French in favor of the dauphin, 
when Charles VI died soon afterwards. After Joan of 
Arc's death in 1431, the French renewed their efforts 
and drove the English back step by step and out of the 
country until, in 1453, their only remaining foothold in 
France was Calais, opposite Dover. 

44. What were the main results of the war to France? 

Ans. The principal result of the Hundred Years' War 
to France was, as also in England, the overthrow of the 
feudal aristocracy, already undermined by the. Crusades. 
The prostration of the nobility naturally favored the 
growth of the royal power, and also the spirit of national- 
ism among all sections was awakened by the great wars 
against England. We may say that feudalism here ended 
and France became a great monarchy and nation. 

45. How was the power of France still further aug- 
mented after the Hundred Years' War? 

Ans. Charles VII, called the Victorious, the weak- 
hearted coward whom Joan of Arc had placed on the 
throne, died in 1461 and was succeeded by Louis XI, as 
foxy and unscrupulous a monarch as ever sat on a throne. 
His favorite maxim was, " He who knows how to deceive 
knows how to reign," which reminds us of the Stuart's 
definition of lying as the " art of kingcraft." The few 
feudal lords who remained after the war with England 
were brought to destruction and their fiefs added to the 
crown. The most famous and powerful vassal was Charles 
the Bold of Burgundy. On his death, Louis, without clear 
right, seized the bulk of his possessions and also gained 
territory in the south of France, thereby getting a wide 
frontage on the Mediterranean and making the Pyrenees 
his southern defense, 



22 HISTORY OF FRANCE 

46. How long did the House of Valois hold the throne? 

Ans. The House of Valois, which ascended the throne 

in the person of Philip VI, cousin of the last Capetian 

king, Charles IV, in 1328, furnished seven monarchs to 

France and ended with Charles VIII, the Affable, suc- 

. cessor of Louis XI, in 1498. 

47. What is noticeable about the duration of the reigns 
of the Capetian kings, and also of the throne of Valois? 

Ans. It has been regarded by historians as remarkable 
that only fourteen Capetian kings reigned from Hugh 
Capet, 987, to Charles IV, the Handsome, 1328, or an 
average of over twenty-four years each, and that the 
seven kings of the House of Valois covered one hundred 
and seventy years, or again over twenty-four years' 
average. This record is perhaps unparalleled in history. 

48. How does the French record for length of reigns 
compare with the English? 

Ans. The English record is an interesting and close 
second to the French in duration of dynasties. There 
were fourteen Plantagenet kings, like the fourteen Capetians 
in France. The Plantagenets, moreover, were of French 
descent, deriving their name from the Count of Anjou, 
father of Henry II, first Plantagenet king of England. 
These fourteen kings covered three hundred and thirty 
years, or an average of over twenty-three and a half years, 
but this includes the Houses of Lancaster and York and the 
Wars of the Roses in which they fought and supplanted 
each other. The succeeding Tudors, only five in number, 
reigned from 1485 to 1603, a period of one hundred and 
eighteen years, again an average of over twenty-three 
and a half. The first three Stuart kings after the Tudors 
maintained the same average, but their reigns were 
interrupted by Cromwell and the Commonwealth, and 
James II, the fourth Stuart, was exiled in three years. 

49. Who were the Troubadours? 

Ans, The Troubadours were the poets of the south of 
France where the Langue d'Oc, or Provencal, dialect pre- 
vailed, the blending of the old Latin speech in Gaul with 
that of the Teutonic invaders. The French proper of the 
north was called Langue d'Oui; these terms, Langue d'Oc 



HISTORY OF FRANCE 23 

and Langue d'Oui, arose from the different word for **yes/' 
which in the south was oc and in the north was out. 
French literature really began in the more polished south 
in the twelfth century. 

50. Were there any marked differences between the 
literary products of the north and south of France? 

Ans. The compositions of the Troubadours were almost 
entirely lyrical and their songs were sung in every land 
and stimulated the early poetry of other European nations. 
The work of the Trouveres in the north of France took 
the form of long epics or narrative, romances — especially 
about King Arthur, Alexander the Great, and Charle- 
magne. The influence of the first is shown in Tennyson's 
"Idylls." 

51. Who was the first French writer of spirited prose? 

Ans. Prose usually follows rather than precedes 
poetry in the development of a nation's literature. Homer 
in Greece preceded Herodotus, and Chaucer in England 
wrote the " Canterbury Tales " before there was any 
worthy prose. Froissart, in the fourteenth century, living 
at the time of the Hundred Years' War, was the French 
annalist of those times, knowing personally many of the 
actors therein and narrating their exploits vividly. 

52. Under what circumstances did the House of Valois 
p France end? 

Ans. The House of Valois ended when, in 1498, Charles 
the Eighth, called the Affable, died, after a vain attempt 
to conquer Naples, with the further intent of humbling the 
Turkish power now grown rampant in the Mediterranean. 
To this end he led the standing army of France, for France 
possessed the first standing army of Europe, formed by 
Charles the Seventh in 1448 during his long war with 
England; this standing army was developed further by 
his successor, the astute Louis XI. 

53. What house succeeded that of Valois? 

Ans. When Charles VIII died, in 1498, at the age of 
twenty-eight, he had lost both his infant sons, his only 
children, and the crown went to Louis, Duke of Orleans, 
twelfth of the name among French kings. 



24 HISTORY OF FRANCE 

54. What English princess was married to Louis XII, 
first French monarch of the Orleans line? 

Ans. Mary Tudor, sister of Henry VIII and the most 
beautiful princess in Europe, was married by her powerful 
brother to Louis XII of France; but he died in six weeks, on 
New Year's Day, 1515, owing to the pageants and feasting 
with which he received his young bride, who was his third 
wife, though he was not very old. 

55. Who were the most prominent rulers in Europe 
during the first half of the sixteenth century? 

Ans. The first half of the sixteenth century was marked 
by the rival reigns of three powerful, ambitious young 
rulers in England, France, and Spain: Henry VIII, father 
of Elizabeth of England, reigned from 1509 to 1547; 
Charles I of Spain, 1516 to 1558, who was also the Emperor 
Charles V, of the German Empire, the most powerful ruler 
in Europe and in constant warfare with the third ruler, 
Francis I of France, 1515-1547. 

56. What wars marked this period? 

Ans. Charles and Francis were rivals for the imperial 
honors in Germany. When the title of emperor was 
conferred by the electors on Carlos I of Spain, who then 
became known by the greater title of the Emperor Charles 
V, a series of wars ensued between him and Francis I, 
whose country was now almost surrounded bv the domin- 
ions of Charles as ruler of Spain, Germany, and the Nether- 
lands. A good deal of the fighting took place in Italy, 
where both sought to gain dominion. The wars, four in 
number, covered much of the time from 1521 to 1544 and 
ended without any substantial change in the possessions 
of either rival. Francis, however, was badly beaten in 
Italy; his forces were driven out and he himself wounded 
and taken prisoner, but he was released by the Treaty of 
Madrid, 1526. 

, 57. What was the worst effect of these wars? 

Ans. The worst effect of these continuous wars was 
to embroil Christian nations for a quarter of a century in 
contests with one another instead of presenting a united 
stand against the all- conquering Turk, who ravaged 
Hungary, captured Rhodes and strengthened Algiers and 
Tunis. Francis not only made an alliance with the Turkish 



HISTORY OF FRANCE 25 

saltan who ravaged the coasts of the Mediterranean and 
sold his captives and plunder in Marseilles, but he perse- 
cuted the inhabitants of Piedmont and Provence who had 
embraced the Protestant doctrines of the Reformation of 
Luther. Thousands of heretics were put to death by the 
sword, thousands were burnt at the stake and the region 
was changed to a wilderness. Such was the result of 
religious fanaticism. 

58. What and where was the Field of the Cloth of 
Gold? 

'Ans. Francis I loved pleasure and glory. In his ef- 
fort to get the help of Henry VIII of England in his attempt 
to be Emperor of Germany, Francis arranged a meeting 
near Calais, where such splendors in tents, ornaments and 
apparel were displayed that the conference is known by 
that title. 

59. What was the Ladies' Peace? 

Ans. The other nations of Europe thought the emperor 
was rather too severe toward Francis I in the Treaty of 
Madrid, 1526, and Louise of Savoy, the mother of Francis, 
and Margaret of Austria, aunt of the emperor, met and 
made what was called the Ladies' Peace, which gave 
Francis somewhat better terms. 

60. Who was Bayard? 

Ans. Bayard, commonly called the " fearless and blame- 
less" (sans peur et sans reproche) was one of the most 
famous h'rench knights in the Italian campaigns under 
Louis XII and Francis I. When finally shot in Italy and 
left dying under a tree, he set up his cross-handled sword 
before him and died in devotion to the emblem of his 
religion. 

61. What gain, if any, did France make in these 
frequent wars of the period? 

Ans. During the reign of Henry II, son of Francis I> 
the French Duke of Guise managed to capture the city of 
Calais by surprise, after England had held it for two 
centuries, ever since the times of Edward III. Queen Mary 
of England, 1547-53, often called Bloody Mary, daughter 
of Henry VIII, said Calais would be found written on her 
heart, its loss was so deeply graven there. 



26 HISTORY OF FRANCE - 

62. What third British Mary within a half century had 
unpleasant recollections of France? 

Ans. Mary, Queen of Scots, granddaughter of Henry 
VIH's sister Margaret, was married to the delicate Francis 
II of France, who ascended the throne in 1559 at the age 
of fifteen. He died in a year and the lovely Mary, so 
young a widow, went home to her native Scotland where 
she could reign as a queen of royal descent instead of 
staying under her mother-in-law, the famous, or in- 
famous, Catherine de' Medici, the daughter of Italian 
merchants. 

63. What was the result of the Protestant Reformation 
in France? 

Ans. The general results of the Protestant Reformation, 
which began in the early part of the sixteenth century, 
were that the northern countries of Europe, excepting 
Ireland, became Protestant, while the southern remained 
steadfast. France, which lies between the north and south, 
remained, in the main, Catholic, but somewhat split by 
the growth of the Huguenots. 

64. Who were the Huguenots? 

Ans. The Huguenots were the Protestants of France 
who followed the teachings of John Calvin, a noted French- 
man, who condemned many of the practices and doc- 
trines of the church of Rome and was obliged to flee 
from Paris to Geneva, where he established himself as a 
doctrinaire and greatly influenced the religion of Scotland, 
England, France, and New England. 

65. What was the beginning of the religious wars in 
France with the Huguenots? 

Ans. In 1562 a congregation of Huguenots, or French 
Protestants, was attacked in a barn by the followers of 
the Duke of Guise, the most prominent leader of the 
Catholics of France. About forty Huguenots were killed 
and many more wounded. 

66. What were the immediate results of the attack on 
the worshiping Huguenots at Vassy in 1662? 

Ans. Admiral Coligny, the worthiest of the Huguenots, 
Anthony, Duke of Bourbon, and the Prince of Cond6, the 
younger brother of Anthony, headed the Huguenots, who 



HISTORY OP FRANCE 27 

rose throughout France, while the Duke of Guise led the 
Catholics of France, to whose aid Philip II of Spain con- 
tributed. Elizabeth of England helped the Huguenots. 
Sieges, battles and truces followed one another in rapid 
succession. Christians of both Protestant and Catholic 
persuasion fought each other with the ferocity of pagans. 
Conspiracies, treacheries and assassinations disgraced 
both parties until, in 1570, the Peace of St. Germain 
brought a temporary but delusive peace. 

67. What was the general character of the Treaty of 
St. Germain in 1570? 

Ans. The Treaty of St. Germain, which was the third 
treaty between the Catholics and Huguenots of France 
within eight years, was highly favorable to the Huguenots, 
who seemed to be getting the better of the Catholics. 
By this treaty the Huguenots received four towns, includ- 
ing La Rochelle, their stronghold, to hold and to garrison 
as places of safety and good faith. 

68. What brilliant scheme did Catherine de* Medici, 
the queen mother of the young King Charles IX, now 
propose? 

Ans. Catherine de' Medici, a scheming, intriguing 
Italian, cared more for power than religion and, though 
nominally Catholic, often favored the Huguenots in order 
to offset the power of the Guises. She now proposed 
marriage between her daughter Marguerite, sister of the 
king, and young Henry of Navarre, the head of the House 
of Bourbon and of the Huguenots, for Duke Anthony, his 
father, and the Prince of Cond6, his uncle, had both fallen 
in the wars of the previous years. This proposed alliance 
caused great rejoicing among both Catholics and Protes- 
tants. 

69. How was the marriage of Marguerite of France 
and Henry of Navarre celebrated? 

Ans. The leading Catholics and Huguenots of France 
flocked to the wedding in Paris, which took place on the 
18th of August, 1572. Before the nuptial festivities that 
followed were over the world was shocked by the worst 
crime that stains the long history of France — the Mas- 
sacre of St. Bartholomew's Day, August 24, 1572. 



28 HISTORY OF FRANCE 

70. What were some of the details of the Massacre of 
St. Bartholomew? 

Ans. Among the Huguenots attending the great wed- 
ding, Admiral Coligny was easily foremost and at once 
gained such influence over the young and weak Charles 
IX that his jealous mother resorted to an attempted 
assassination of the admiral and, when he escaped with a 
wound in the hand and the Huguenots threatened ven- 
geance, the queen mother, insane with fear and hatred, 
resolved promptly on the extermination of all the Hugue- 
nots in Paris. When the midnight bell tolled, the massacre 
began. Coligny was one of the first victims and his body 
was tossed from the window of his chamber. 

71. Did the king sanction this atrocious crime? 

Ans. On the evening of the massacre Catherine went 
to Charles and told him that the Huguenots had formed 
a plot to assassinate the royal family and all the Catholic 
leaders, and their only escape was in getting ahead of them 
at their own game. The king at first refused to sign the 
decree, but at last, overcome by his strong-willed mother, 
he agreed on condition that not one Huguenot should be 
left to reproach him with the deed. 

72. What was the extent of the Massacre of St Bar- 
tholomew? 

Ans. The massacre continued in Paris for three days 
and nights and estimates of the slaughtered range from 
three thousand to ten thousand. Orders were then is- 
sued to clear the principal cities of France of heretics. 
Though in some places the instincts of humanity over- 
powered the fear of disobeying the decree, it is estimated 
that between twenty and thirty thousand perished. 

73. What provision was made to distinguish friend 
from foe on the night of St. Bartholomew's Massacre? 

Ans. The Catholics tied a white scarf around the left 
arm in order to know one another. 

73a. What celebrated picture commemorates this 
tying of the scarf? 

Ans. The celebrated painting by Millais of the Hugue- 
not lover whose Catholic sweetheart binds a white scarf 
around his arm as they part late at night while he tries to 



HISTORY OF FRANCE 29 

read the meaning in her pleading eyes. The beautiful face 
of the girl is said to be that of Ruskin's wife, whom the 
great author compassionately divorced in order that she 
might marry the artist with whom she had fallen violently 
in love while he was engaged in painting her portrait. 
The-picture is also said to represent Marguerite of France 
trying to save her young Huguenot husband of less than a 
week from the danger to" which her mother and brother's 
crime has exposed him. 

*^ 74. What was the effect of the Massacre of St. Bar- 
tholomew? 

Ans. That " the blood of the martyrs is the seed of 
the church " was again illustrated. Though Philip H of 
Spain is said to have rejoiced and the pope to have ordered 
a Te Deum to be sung in Rome, under a partial mis- 
apprehension of the facts, a cry of execration arose in 
almost every part of the civilized world from Catholics 
and Protestants alike. Throughout the two remaining 
years of Charles IX's reign and the fifteen of his brother 
Henry HI, war and turmoil reigned until, in 1589, the 
House of Valois- Orleans ended with the third of the three 
weak, childless brothers, and Henry of Navarre, the 
leader of the Huguenots to whom Catherine de Medici 
had married her daughter Marguerite, came to the throne 
as Henry IV. 

75. What sort of a man and ruler was Henry IV? 

Ans. Henry IV was an immoral man but he was a 
far abler ruler than France had known. He sought to 
heal the wounds made by war and to encourage agricul- 
ture, trade and commerce. 

76. What are a few of the details of the reign of Henry 
IV of France? 

Ans. During the first four years of his reign, 1589 to 
1593, Henry proved the ablest leader the Huguenots had 
had; he won the battle of Ivry, where he told his soldiers 
to press where they saw his white plume wave. In 1593 
he decided to adopt the Roman Catholic faith as the one 
thing necessary for hearty support by the Catholic chiefs, 
who liked him personally. Henry then proceeded to 
strengthen his kingdom, especially by proclaiming the 
celebrated Edict of Nantes, 1598. 



30 HISTORY OF FRANCE 

77. What was the Edict of Nantes? 

Ans. The Edict of Nantes, proclaimed in 1598, granted 
the Huguenots freedom of worship, opened to them all 
offices and employments, and gave them a large number of 
fortified towns and cities of refuge. 

78. What were the results of the Edict of Nantes? 

Ans. By this act of religious toleration the way was 
paved for such a revival of trade, industry, and commerce 
as France had lacked for a generation, but it also led to the 
assassination of Henry IV by Ravaillac, a fanatic monk, 
who looked on Henry as an enemy of the Catholic church. 
This was in 1610, twelve years after the edict of toleration. 

79. Who succeeded the able Henry IV? 

Ans. The nine-year-old son of Henry, Louis XIII, 
succeeded to the throne, but his mother, Marie de' Medici, 
administered the government until he attained his ma- 
jority. When Louis assumed the control he called to his 
assistance the very celebrated Cardinal Richelieu, who 
virtually ruled France for twenty years, and largely 
controlled all Europe. 

80. What was Richelieu's policy? 

Ans. Richelieu's policy was twofold: first, to make the 
king absolute in France; and second, to make France 
supreme in Europe. 

81. What means did Richelieu take to carry out his 
twofold policy? 

Ans. To secure the first, the absolute power of the 
king, Richelieu sought to crush the Huguenots and the 
independence of the old feudal aristocracy; to make France 
dominant in Europe, he labored to break down the power 
of the Hapsburgs in Austria and Spain. 

82. What weapons did Richelieu use in his work as 
minister? 

Ans. Intrigue, diplomacy, and war were the weapons 
that Richelieu employed with consummate skill for nearly 
a generation to attain his ends. His double authority of 
church and state, as cardinal and prime minister, greatly 
aided him. " I shall trample all opposition under foot," 
he said, " and then cover all errors with my scarlet robe." 



HISTORY OF FRANCE 31 

83. How did Richelieu proceed to undermine the 
Huguenots? 

Ans. The Huguenot chiefs, dissatisfied with their po- 
Htical position, were contemplating the founding of a 
Protestant republic in southwest France, with La Rochelle 
on the coast as capital, and in 1627 formed an alliance 
with England for aid in that design. An English fleet and 
army crossed the Channel, but Richelieu in person led an 
army against La Rochelle, which was compelled to opeai 
its gates, 1628, after a year's siege. Louis ordered the 
fortifications razed so completely that a plow could be 
drawn through the ground as through tilled land. 

84. What was the final outcome of the Huguenot 
defeat at La Rochelle? 

Ans. After a few months' further struggle in the south 
of France, the Huguenots lost all political power but 
were, by the Edict of Grace, 1629, still allowed freedom of 
worship according to the provisions of the Edict of Nantes 
of Henry IV in 1598, a generation previous. 

85. What was the cost to France of this religious 
struggle between Catholic and Protestant Frenchmen? 

Ans. It is estimated that the religious wars which 
desolated France for two generations, 1562 to 1629, cost 
a million lives and the destruction of between three and 
four hundred villages and towns. 

86. How did Richelieu's foreign policy differ from his 
home policy? 

Ans. Although Richelieu used all his power to crush 
Protestantism in France, he aided the Protestant princes 
of Germany in the great Thirty Years' War, 1618-48, in 
which a similar religious contest was being waged in 
Germany between the two branches of the Christian 
church. This policy Richelieu followed not, of course, 
from any sympathy with Protestantism, but to divide 
Germany and humiliate Austria. 

87. Did Richelieu succeed in his foreign policy as well 
as in his home rule? 

Ans. Richelieu did not live to see the result of the 
Thirty Years' War in Germany, or the end of the war 



32 HISTORY OF FRANCE 

which he began with Spain, but the continuation of his 
poHcy by his successors resulted in fulfilUng his ambition: 
the humiUation of both branches of the House of Haps- 
burg and the Hfting of France into the first place in Europe. 

88. What celebrated play illustrates Cardinal Riche- 
lieu's power and personality? 

Ans. "Richeheu" by Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton, pre- 
sents Richelieu in very vivid colors. As played by Edwin 
Booth, America's greatest tragedian, the power of the great 
cardinal over the weaker king and scheming nobles was 
made so real as to be a memory for a lifetime. 

89. What changes followed on the death of Richelieu, 
the prime minister of Louis XIII? 

Ans. Richelieu's parting advice to Louis XIII, when 
dying in his fifty-eighth year in 1642, was to trust to 
Mazarin, an Italian priest, for guidance, but the king 
survived his great minister only a few months and died 
at forty-two in 1643, leaving the prosperous realm to his 
son, Louis XIV, then only five years old. 

90. What were the general characteristics of Louis 
XIV's reign? 

Ans. Louis XIV had the longest reign in history, 
seventy-two years, or from 1643 to 1715, exceeding that of 
Queen Victoria, the longest reign in English history, by 
nine years, and that of Francis Joseph of Austria by three 
years. He was called the Grand Monarch, everything 
French was then so splendid. The king personally was very 
able, the country very prosperous, his warriors and scholars 
very brilliant. But his life reign was typical of that 
of nations and many persons — -growth, glory, dechne; 
and though in middle life Louis seemed to dominate all 
Europe, and his generals won great victories, at the last 
his power was greatly weakened. William of Orange and 
the Duke of Marlborough won many victories over him 
and the aging monarch was very ready to make peace 
on almost any terms. 

91. Who administered the government during Louis 
XIV's minority? 

Ans. Anne of Austria, a Spanish princess, was regent, 
but Mazarin was the able successor of Richelieu and 



HISTORY OF FRANCE 33 

continued his policies. The Thirty Years' ReHgious War 
in Germany ended in the Peace of WestphaUa in 1648, 
with Austria exhausted and all Germany well-nigh ruined. 
War between France and Spain continued till the Treaty 
of the Pyrenees, in 1659, which asserted the triumph 
of France. The House of Hapsburg had lost in both 
Austria and Spain, and the French House of Bourbon 
•.now led in European affairs. 

92. What were the wars of the Fronde? 

Ans. When Mazarin laid an unjust tax on the food 
brought into Paris, the French Parliament, which repre- 
sented not all France, but was made up of the lawyers of 
Paris and the great nobles of the old duchy of France with 
the bishops and princes of the blood royal, revolted. 
The struggle which ensued, from 1648 to 1652, is called 
the Fronde. Fronde means " sling " and refers to the 
sharp words slung at one another by the various speakers 
in the earlier part of the quarrel. Paris was twice besieged 
in the course of the war that followed. Mazarin was 
expelled by the Prince of Conde, but by the aid of the 
queen was recalled and threw Conde into prison, but the 
latter, being released, joined the Spaniards in their war 
against his country. 

93. What was the second period in Louis XIV's long 
career? 

Ans. In 1661, when Louis was twenty-three, Mazarin 
died. To the miinisters asking to whom they should report 
Louis answered, " To myself," and for over half a century 
he ruled as an absolute and irresponsible monarch, " I am 
the State " {L'etat, c'est moi) was his declaration, in that 
terse remark claiming all executive, legislative, and judicial 
power. Never once was the States-General convened 
during his long reign. 

94. What were Louis -XIV's personal traits of character? 

Ans. Louis XIV was an able man. Mazarin said that 
he had the making of four kings in him and an honest 
man besides. He was noted for stately courtesy and kindly 
manners. He never received a courtesy without returning 
a bow and he dazzled nearly every one, male as well as 
female, so that they looked on him as almost a divinity 
and could not see his faults. His great defect was the idea 



34 HISTORY OF FRANCE 

that the nation was made for his glory and not that he 
was made for the good of the people. Mazarin had cared 
more for the greatness of France than for the character of 
the king and the young monarch had been allowed to 
grow up in ignorance, though he tried later to atone for 
this neglect. His mother had taught him religion as well 
as manners and he always respected religion though he 
failed to practice it. 

95. What was the character of the court of Louis XIV? 

Ans. The French court of the last half of the seven- 
teenth century was noted for its splendor and also for its 
stiffness. Every one knew just who must stand and who 
might sit, who might be on stools and who must kneel. 
It was a most gorgeous spectacle, but a hollow, artificial 
show, as theatrical as the high heels the king wore to 
increase his dignity. 

96. What was the theory of government prevailing in 
Europe in the seventeenth century? 

Ans. In England, under the Stuart kings, 1603-88, 
and in France, under Louis XIV, the Grand Monarch, 
1643-1715, and other rulers of the period, the theory of the 
divine right of kings to rule prevailed. The nation was a 
great family, with the king as its divinely appointed head. 
The king was to govern as a father and was responsible 
to God alone; the children were unfortunate if he did 
wrong, but under no circumstances could they rebel 
against the king. 

97. What was the outcome of the prevailing theory of 
absolute government by the ** divine right of kings " ? 

Ans. The theory proved very costly to kings and people, 
but in the end the people of both England and France 
proved they were capable and had a right to govern them- 
selves. In England one king was executed, Charles I, 
1649; another expelled, James II, 1688; the dynasty 
changed and no ruler has ever exercised political power 
in England since the Stuarts; George III lost the American 
colonies by attempting to do so. In France Louis XIV 
lost much that he had gained and before another century 
expired the French Revolution, in 1793, executed its king 



HISTORY OF FRANCE 35 

and established a republic that after various vicissitudes 
has, in its third establishment in 1871, now stood stead- 
fast for nearly half a century. 

98. In how many and what wars did Louis XIV engage? 

Ans. The wars of Louis were four, all wars of conquest 
and aggression: the war in the Spanish Netherlands, 
1667-68; a war with Holland, 1672-78; a war in Germany, 
1689-97; and the War of the Spanish Succession. 

99. What was the character and result of the war in 
the Netherlands? 

Ans. When Philip of Spain, the father of Louis' wife, 
died, Louis claimed in the name of his wife a portion of 
the Spanish Netherlands. Holland was naturally alarmed 
and formed a Triple Alliance with England and Sweden, 
forcing Louis to give up most of the land he had seized. 

100. How did Louis the Great succeed against little 
Holland? 

Ans. Angered by the interference of Holland with his 
designs on the Netherlands, Louis succeeded by skilful 
diplomacy in drawing both England and Sweden from 
their alliance with Holland and even secured help from 
Charles of England. But Holland made a stout resistance 
and forced the invaders to retreat by cutting the dykes 
and flooding the surrounding country when the French 
were threatening Amsterdam. Their heroic defense de- 
tached many allies from France and joined them to 
Holland until peace was arranged in 1678. 

101. When was the Grand Monarch, Louis XIV, at the 
height of his career? 

Ans. Louis XIV may be said to have been at the 
zenith of his long career of nearly three-quarters of a cen- 
tury when he ended his second war, that with Holland, in 
1678. Out of that struggle with half of Europe against 
him he emerged with increased reputation and with 
possession of many towns and fortresses in the Nether- 
lands and some territory and cities on the German border. 

102. When may Louis XIV be said to have com- 
menced to fail? 

Ans. In 1685 Louis revoked the Edict of Nantes, that 
wise provision of Henry IV, which secured religious free- 



36 HISTORY OF FRANCE 

dom to the Protestants of France in 1598. From this 
date Louis' power began to fail. 

103. What were the results of the revocation of the 
Edict of Nantes? 

Ans. The prosperity of France changed; the Protestant 
churches were closed; all Huguenots who refused to be- 
come Cathohcs were outlawed; dragoons were quartered 
upon Protestant families with full permission to annoy 
and persecute them in every way short of violation and 
death. These persecutions were called dragonnades. It 
is supposed that not less than three hundred thousand 
of the most skilled and industrious workmen of France 
were driven out of France to transfer their skill and in- 
dustry to Holland, England, and America. Several im- 
portant, flourishing industries were ruined or seriously 
crippled in France, to flourish more elsewhere. 

104. What marks of French Huguenots are to be 
found in American history? 

Ans. In 1562 and 1564 French Huguenots settled on 
the coasts of South Carolina and Florida, but the first 
colony returned to France and the second was massacred 
by the Spaniards under Men6ndez, who settled the oldest 
city in the United States, St. Augustine, Florida, 1565. 
This was before the Edict of Nantes allowed of Protestant 
worship in France. After the revocation, a century later, 
the parents of Peter Faneuil, the wealthiest merchant of 
Boston, who built Faneuil Hall in 1743; of Paul Revere; 
of Governor Bowdoin, for whom Bowdoin College was 
named, came to Boston with other Huguenot families. 
Marion, Sevier and Laurens are a few famous names of 
South Carolina patriots of French Huguenot origin. 

105. What was the nature of Louis XIV's third war? 

Ans, As an indirect result of the revocation of the 
Edict of Nantes, such indignation was aroused among the 
Protestant nations of Europe that William of Orange, 
Louis' most inveterate and sagest enemy, was able to form 
the League of Augsburg, 1686, Louis resolved to attack 
the confederates. He claimed portions of the Palatinate 
in the name of his sister-in-law, hurried a large army 
there, overran the country and turned it into a desert. 
Churches and abbeys, palaces and cottages, villas and cities 



HISTORY OF FRANCE 37 

were given to the flames. Alsace and Strasburg were 
annexed to France. The Germans were furious and the 
Grand Alliance of eight different rulers and countries was 
formed against Louis, 1689. 

106. How did the war of Louis XIV against Germany 
end? 

Ans. For almost a decade, 1689 to 1697, nearly all 
Europe was a great battlefield; both sides finally wearied 
of war and became exhausted in resources, so a peace 
was concluded by the Treaty of Ryswick, 1697. There 
was a mutual surrender of places conquered in the war 
and Louis also was obliged to give up some of the places 
unjustly seized at the beginning of the war. But the 
beginning of the present Alsace-Lorraine trouble was the 
seizure and annexation of German territory by French. 

107. What and when was Louis XIV' s fourth and last 
war? 

Ans. Three years after the Treaty of Ryswick was 
signed, in 1697, the leading powers of Europe were engaged 
in the War of the Spanish Succession. In 1700 the king of 
Spain died, leaving his crown to Philip, grandson of Louis, 
whose wife we must remember was a Spanish princess. 
"There are no longer any Pyrenees," said Louis, at the 
prospect of controlling Spain as well as France. But 
England and Holland were alarmed at this upset of the 
balance of power among the nations, and a second Grand 
Alliance was formed to put Charles, Archduke of Austria, 
on the Spanish throne instead of Philip. 

108. Who were the generals opposed to France and 
what was their degree of success? 

Ans\ The great Duke of Orange, who had become 
William III of England, died in 1702, but his place was 
ably taken by John Churchill, the very famous Duke of 
Marlborough, perhaps the ablest general England ever 
produced. For thirteen years, 1701-14, he never lost a 
battle or failed to take a fortress he besieged. Blenheim, 
Ramillies, Oudenarde, Malplaquet, were splendid victories, 
and Eugene of Savoy was a very able ally of Marlborough. 

109. What was the strange outcome of the War of 
the Spanish Succession? 

Ans. Deaths in the House of Austria brought the 



38 HISTORY OF FRANCE 

Archduke Charles to the imperial throne of Germany, so 
that the balance of power shifted and the allies now pre- 
ferred that Philip, grandson of Louis, should stay on the 
throne of Spain. Treaties were made to that effect, but 
his kingdom was trimmed; Gibraltar and Minorca were 
ceded to England, while the Spanish Netherlands and 
Milan, Naples, and Sardinia were given to Austria. 

110. What was the end of Louis? 

Ans. The offer of peace came to Louis in his last war 
like water to a man dying of thirst. Exorbitant taxes to 
maintain the wars and to support the splendor of the 
court had bankrupted the country and people were cry- 
ing for bread. The old king had lost his son, the dauphin, 
the dauphiness and his two grandsons. On September 1, 
1715, the Grand Monarch left a country deep in debt and 
misery to his nearest heir, a great-grandson, Louis XV. 

111. What was the most expensive expenditure of 
Louis in the way of splendor? 

Ans. Among the half-dozen palaces of Louis, that of 
Versailles outshone the rest. The palace itself cost more 
than a hundred million dollars, and the gardens were elabor- 
ate. The royal household numbered fifteen thousand per- 
sons, maintained in luxurious idleness at the expense of 
the people. 

112. What was the standard of morality of Louis XIV' s 
splendid court? 

Ans. Life at the court of Louis XIV was very corrupt, 
but the scandalous immoralities of king and courtier were 
gilded by superficial accomplishments and exquisite polish 
of manner. 

113. Was this glitter of the French court communi- 
cated elsewhere? 

Ans. Europe imitated and emulated French manners 
and extravagance. Especially in England, the court of 
Charles II, 1660-85, after the death of Cromwell and the 
overthrow of Puritanism, became the most corrupt that 
England ever knew before or since. Charles had lived as 
a royal exile in the court of Louis after his father's execu- 
tion, and imbibed completely the French ideals of life 



HISTORY OF FRANCE 39 

and vice, and imported plays and actresses, the first women 
to appear on the English stage. 

114. Did France possess many talented men during 
Louis XrV's reign? 

Ans. Many men of the highest order of ability dis" 
tinguished the long reign of Louis: Colbert, during the 
early years of the reign, handled the finances of France 
with consummate ability; Turenne and the Prince of 
Cond6 were probably the ablest generals in Europe when 
Louis was reaching the maximum of his power; Bossuet and 
F^nelon were saints and scholars of great worth ; Corneille, 
Racine and Moliere are the greatest names in the French 
drama. Louis encouraged writers of every class and made 
his reign the Augustan Age of French literature. 

115. What were the fortunes of .France under the 
successor of Louis XIV? 

Ans. Under Louis XV, 1715-74, another long reign, 
France passed from great brilliancy and strength to sharp 
decline and humiliation. She still took part in all the wars 
of the period, but generally with loss of prestige and 
territory. The leading wars were the War of the Austrian 
Succession and the Seven Years' War with England. 
This latter war, 1756-63, is most interesting to Americans 
because by it France lost her American and East Indian 
possessions. By service in that war colonial troops and 
officers were prepared for the American Revolution and its 
cost led England to impose those taxes on her colonies 
which precipitated their revolt. 

116. What was the personal character of Louis XV? 

Ans. Louis XV was barely five when his great-grand- 
father's death gave him the throne. Philip, Duke of Or- 
leans, son of Louis XIV's brother, acted as regent. He 
was a thoroughly dissipated man and the whole court 
became a sink of iniquity. The king was shy and dull; 
his wife, a Polish princess, was kind and gentle, but not 
clever, and the king soon fell under the influences of the 
boon companions of the Duke of Orleans, who died as 
the young king came to manhood. The king grew worse 
in morals and frequented low dances of the Paris mob, 
though he took pains to go to church every morning. 



40 HISTORY OF FRANCE 

117. Who succeeded Louis XV? 

Ans, When Louis XV, a disgrace to his name and 
country, died in 1774, his grandson, a fine young man, 
twenty years old, ascended the throne. His wife was the 
beautiful, bright, young Marie Antoinette of Austria. 

118. What was the character of the young Louis XVI 
who succeeded the dissolute Louis XV in 1774? 

Ans. When Louis XVI and his young queen, Marie 
Antoinette, heard of their grandfather's death, they threw 
themselves on their knees and cried, " Oh, God, help us; 
we are too young to reign." They felt the danger of the 
situation after centuries of selfishness and wickedness, 
and the young king tried hard to set things right, but he 
was not a clever man and was very awkward, shy, and 
easily confused. 

119. How did the young queen, Marie Antoinette, dis- 
please the French people? 

- Ans. Marie Antoinette had been brought up in a 
court that at that time was much less stately and where 
manners were more simple than in the court of France, 
and she laughed at the formal court ways and tried to get 
free from them. She called the Duchess of Noailles, who 
tried to keep her in order, Madame d' Etiquette, and in- 
stead of living at Versailles, or even at the little palace 
at Trianon, sjtie occupied a smaller house, with farm and 
dairy, where she and her ladies wore muslin dresses and 
straw hats and amused themselves in simple, innocent 
ways; but the French people, steeped in the past scandals 
of the French court, could not believe in her innocence 
and, moreover, they hated the land of her birth. 

120. What were the main causes of the great French 
Revolution in the reign of Louis XVI? 

Ans. Five leading causes of the French Revolution 
were: 

1. The abuses and extravagances of the reigning House 
of Bourbon, culminating in the scandals arising from the 
alleged order of the queen for an immensely expensive 
diamond necklace. 

2. The unjust privileges of the nobility and clergy. 

3. The wretched condition of the ma§s of the people. 



HISTORY OF FRANCE 41 

4. The revolutionar}'- character of the French literature 
of the period and the attacks upon the private character 
of Marie Antoinette. 

5. The success of the American Revolution. 

121. What are the most noticeable details under the 
first cause of the French Revolution? 

Ans. Under the Bourbons, every person's life was at 
the arbitrary disposal of the king. One might be thrown 
into prison and kept there without knowing the offense. 
The taxes were confiscations and the public money was 
shamelessly wasted in scandalous excesses. 

122. What was the peculiarity of the French nobility? 

Ans. The nobility of France numbered eighty thousand, 
since, unlike England, all the children in a French noble- 
man's family were noble and exempt from taxes. The no- 
bility of France held one-fifth of the land, for which they 
paid scarcely anything in taxes. 

123. Why were the French clergy a burden rather than 
a blessing? 

Ans. The clergy possessed more than a third of the 
land, the gift of piety through many centuries. This large 
share of the country was practically exempt from taxa- 
tion. The clergy were largely recruited from the families 
of the nobility who were attracted into the church by its 
revenues and social distinction rather than by the induce- 
ments of piety or care for the poor. 

124. What was, in some detail, the condition of the 
common people in France before the Revolution? 

Ans~. The common people of France, numbering about 
twenty-five millions and owning less than half of the land, 
paid all the expenses of an extravagant court and main- 
tained an arrogant, worthless nobility and clergy. More- 
over, they were greatly hampered by old feudal obligations 
in the use of the restricted territory belonging to them. 
They were forbidden to fence their fields, as fences interfered 
with hunting; they were forbidden to cultivate their 
fields at certain seasons, as it disturbed the partridges; 
they were forbidden to manure their fields lest they offend 
my lord's aristocratic nostrils; they must beat the bushes 
and quiet the frogs at night, if my lady was sick. If crops 



42 HISTORY OF FRANCE 

failed, they starved and died along the roadways. The 
lord of the manor, among his feudal rights, might even 
claim the body of his tenant's daughter before she could 
be permitted to marry. 

125. Who were the leading French writers in the middle 
of the eighteenth century and what was their influence? 

Ans. Rousseau, 1712-78, and Voltaire, 1694-1778, were 
brilliant but sceptical and revolutionary writers. Rousseau 
declared that the evils of the state were due to the false, 
artificial arrangements of society, such as the family, the 
church, the state. Savages, he declared, were happier 
than civilized men; therefore, let us return to a state of 
nature — or simplicity. This teaching amid the eyils of 
the time fostered discontent with the established order 
of things and created an intolerable thirst for change and 
innovation. 

126. How much did the American Revolution have to 
do with causing the French Revolution? 

Ans, The American Revolution undoubtedly did much 
toward starting the French Revolution. From the first 
the French had deeply sympathized with the colonists in 
their struggle for independence. It was but a decade 
since England had driven them out of their vast pos- 
sessions in New France. Lafayette and many other 
noblemen had offered service, and, after Saratoga, an 
open alliance furnished money, ships and soldiers, without 
which aid it is hard to see how America could have suc- 
ceeded. In the American success the French saw their 
dream a reality. The rights of man had been reclaimed 
and vindicated, Franklin and Jefferson, our ministers to 
France, had charmed the French and they longed for 
equal freedom from tyranny. 

127. What efforts did the young king make to stem 
the rising tide of discontent? 

Ans. Louis XVI called to his aid the most eminent 
financiers and statesmen, Turgot, Necker, Calonne, and 
others, but the disease had gnawed to the vitals and could 
not be cured. Reform and retrenchment were impossible 
against tradition, custom, and selfishness. In 1787 the 
king summoned the Notables, a body of lords and prel- 
ates not previously called since the reign of Henry IV 



HISTORY OF FRANCE 43 

in 1589, or for two hundred years. They refused to give 
up any of their feudal privileges or to be taxed, and so 
their coming together accompHshed nothing. 

128. What was the next attempt to rescue France from 
bankruptcy when the Notables failed in 1787? 

Ans. On May 5, 1789, less than a week after Washing- 
ton was installed as President of the United States, the 
States-General met at Versailles, for the first time it had 
been called to deliberate on the affairs of the nation in 
one hundred and seventy-five years. 

129. Of what was the States-General of France com- 
posed? 

Ans. The States-General, an almost forgotten assembly 
of France, when summoned to meet at Versailles in 1789, 
was composed of the three estates — the nobility, the 
clergy, and the commons, the third estate {Tiers Etat). 
As convened in 1789, it consisted of twelve hundred repre- 
sentatives, more than half of whom, a clear majority, were 
deputies of the commons. 

130. What were the first acts of the States-Genera^ 
of France in 1789? 

Ans. It had been the ancient custom for the States- 
General to vote by orders, in which event, as things were 
in 1789, the third estate, or commons, though in a majority, 
was sure to be outvoted by the privileged orders of the 
nobility and the clergy. The commons, therefore, in- 
sisted that the voting should be by individuals. After a 
wrangle over this matter for five weeks, the commons 
took the revolutionary step of declaring themselves the 
National Assembly and inviting the two others to join 
them. Refused the palace, the commons met in a church 
and were joined by many of the clergy and, in a couple of 
days, by the nobility. The States-General had now be- 
come in reality the National Assembly. 

131. What is meant by the Storming of the Bastille? 

Ans. The BastiUe was a grim old prison where the 
Bourbons had confined their political prisoners. On July 
14, 1789, a frenzy seized the mob on a report that the 
guns of the Bastille were trained on the city. The mob laid 
siege to the fortress and in a few hours its walls were 



44 , HISTORY OF FRANCE 

razed. Few prisoners were found, for Louis XVI had 
released all his grandfather's prisoners. The Bastille had 
been regarded as the symbol of despotism and the four- 
teenth of July was afterwards hailed as the French 
equivalent of the American Fourth of July, the symbol of 
freedom from tyranny. 

132. What followed on the fall of the Bastille? 

Ans. The mob now felt its power. Sympathizers with 
royalty were massacred mercilessly, castles throughout 
the most of the country were sacked and burnt, the occu- 
pants were killed and thrust into prison. All the nobility 
that could get away fled beyond the frontier. 

133. What was the next specific act of the mob after 
destroying the Bastille? 

Ans. On the arrival of a body of troops at Versailles, a 
banquet was given to the officers, at which the young 
nobles, when heated with wine, trampled on the national 
tricolor cockades and displayed the Bourbon emblem, the 
white cockade. A report of this reached Paris, together 
with a rumor of the intended flight of the king to Metz. 
The poorer classes were suffering _for bread, and, savage 
with hunger, on October 5, 1789, a mob of women bran-w 
dishing knives and clubs streamed out of Paris toward 
Versailles, twelve miles distant, bent on demanding relief 
from the king. The National Guard, commanded by 
Lafayette, followed, and Paris emptied itself into the 
royal suburbs. 

134. What was the outcome of the wild mob's raid on 
Versailles? 

Ans. After camping in the streets of Versailles for the 
night, the mob broke into the palace with axes, killed two 
of the guards, and the timely arrival of Lafayette alone 
saved the entire royal family from massacre. The queen 
barely escaped from her chamber as the mob reached it. 

135. What was the next step in the French Revolution 
after the attack on the palace at Versailles? 

Ans. The king was compelled to return with the mob 
to Paris that he might remain under their observation. 
Lafayette was charged with the duty of guarding the 
king, practically imprisoned in the Palace ofsthe Tuileries, 



HISTORY OF FRANCE 45 

as a hostage for the good conduct of the nobility and 
foreign rulers while the Assembly prepared a constitution. 
This was known as the Joyous Entry of October 6. Ver- 
sailles, stripped of royalty and spattered with blood, was 
never again the residence of a King of France. 

136. What became of the king confined in the Tuileries? 

Ans. For nearly two years affairs were comparatively 
quiet. The Assembly was busy with reform in church and 
state; the nobles watched from the frontier but dared not 
endanger the king by any rash attack. Finally, on June 
20, 1791, the royal family attempted to escape in disguise. 
They very nearly succeeded and in an hour would have 
crossed the border, when the Bourbon features of the king 
betrayed him and the entire party was brought back to 
Paris. This attempt to run away hurt the king's cause 
fatally. It amounted to abdication and the people began 
to talk of a republic. 

137. What final action was taken by the National 
Assembly? 

Ans. On the 14th of September, 1791, the new con- 
stitution making the government a constitutional mon- 
archy was solemnly ratified by the king. The National 
Assembly then adjourned, after holding session for three 
years. 

138. What happened after the National Assembly 
adjourned September 30, 1791? 

Ans. a legislative assembly of seven hundred and 
forty-five members, provided for by the National Assembly, 
convened the following day, October 1, 1791, consisting 
of three groups: ConstitutionaHsts, supporters of the new 
constitution; Girondists, who desired a republic like 
America; and the radical Mountainists (so called from 
their high seats), who were levellers of all ranks. Marat, 
Danton, and Robespierre were the leaders of this third 
faction and their names became the terror of the majority 

139. What action was taken by the great powers of 
Europe? 

Ans. The French situation caused great anxiety in 
Europe. If the French succeeded in overthrowing their 
hereditary ruler, what became of the divine right of 



46 HISTORY OF FRANCE 

kings? Who would be dethroned next? So Frederick 
William III of Prussia and Francis II of the German 
Empire (Austria and her allies) began warlike prepara- 
tions which led the Assembly to declare war on them. 
Over a hundred thousand Prussians and Austrians crossed 
the French border and were at first successful, and the 
Duke of Brunswick approached Paris with an immense 
army. 

140. How did the French act in the presence of a 
hostile army? 

Ans. An insolent demand from the Duke of Brunswick 
that the French submit to their king, accompanied by a 
threat to destroy the city, drove the excitable French 
frantic. They attacked the Tuileries, cut down the cele- 
brated Swiss Guard that defended it bravely and when 
the allies hurried to the rescue the excited Parisians, led 
by Danton, resolved to murder all royalists confined in 
the jails of Paris. A hundred assassins were hired for 
this atrocity, who first slew all priests in the churches who 
refused to take oath to the new constitution, and then 
the victims of the jails. This "September Massacre," 
in which several thousand were butchered, was the worst 
crime of the French Revolution. 

141. What became of the allies? 

Ans. The allies were checked, and on September 20, 
1792, defeated at Valmy and driven out of the country. 
About the same date the Legislative Assembly dissolved 
and a National Convention assembled. 

142. Of what did the National Convention consist? 

Ans. The National Convention of September, 1792, con- 
sisted of seven hundred and forty-nine deputies. Thomas 
Paine, the American free-thinker whose pamphlet, "Com- 
mon Sense," had helped to achieve the American Revolu- 
tion, was among them. '^ There were now two parties only, 
the Constitutionalists having been suppressed. No one 
dared talk of a monarchy; all were republicans. On the 
opening day, September 21, 1792, the monarchy was 
abolished and a republic proclaimed. All titles of nobility 
were abolished; every one was called a citizen; the king 
was merely Citizen Capet and a shoeblack was Citizen 
Shoeblack. 



HISTORY OF FRANCE 47 

143. What change was made in counting time? 

Ans. The day following the proclamation of the re- 
public, September 22, 1792, was called the first day of the 
year 1, the beginning of a new era, the natal day of lib- 
erty. All nations were called to rise against despotism 
and the aid of France was promised to all people who 
wished to secure liberty. Belgium, then an Austrian pos- 
session, was overrun and occupied, Austria and Prussia 
having been beaten back. 

144. How did the victorious French treat their king? 

Ans. The king was brought before the bar of the Con- 
vention on the 11th of December, 1792, charged with 
having conspired with the enemies of France against the 
will of his people and with having caused the massacre of 
August 10, 1792. The sentence was immediate death, 
and on January 21, 1793, Louis XVI was conducted to 
the scaffold. 

145. What was the fate of the queen, the beautiful 
Marie Antoinette? 

Ans. The queen was spared at the time of the king's 
execution and endured nine months' imprisonment before 
the Reign of Terror reached a height which brought her 
before the revolutionary tribunal that quickly condemned 
her to be beheaded. 

146. How was the execution of the king regarded out- 
side of France? 

Ans. The execution of the king awakened the most 
bitter hostility against the revolutionists in all the old 
monarchies of Europe. No less than eleven powers, 
headed by Prussia, Austria, and England, formed a grand 
coalition against them and a quarter of a million men 
threatened France at once on every frontier. 

147. Was there great unanimity throughout France at 
this time? 

Ans. The people of La Vendee, in western France, re- 
tained their reverence for royalty, church, and the nobil- 
ity, and rose in revolt against the innovations, meeting 
with considerable success for a while. 



48 HISTORY OP FRANCE 

148. How did the Convention meet all the dangers 
within and without? 

Ans. The Convention ordered a levy of three hundred 
thousand men. The Mountainists, on the reception of 
gloomy news, defeats of the armies, counter-revolution in 
La Vendee, urged extreme measures, forced contributions 
by the rich, and confiscations of their carriages to convey 
soldiers to the field. The more conservative Girondists op- 
posed these latter measures until a mob of eighty thousand 
surrounded the Convention and demanded the surrender 
of the Girondists as enemies of the republic. The 
Girondists were placed under arrest and the mob thus 
purged the Convention as the army purged the English 
Parliament in the days of Cromwell. 

149. When did the Reign of Terror begin? 

Ans. The Reign of Terror began June- 2, 1793, with the 
fall of the Girondists, the last resisting check on violence. 
With the moderates expelled, the extremists, through a 
Committee of Public Safety, carried out a policy of terror- 
ism. All aristocrats and persons lukewarm in the cause of 
liberty were ordered to the guillotine. Hundreds were 
murdered for their wealth; others, as the victims of dis- 
pleasure. 

150. Who were the most prominent leaders in the 
French Reign of Terror? 

Ans. Marat, a man of low origin, was president of the 
Committee of Public Safety, and Danton and Robespierre 
were members. 

151. Who was Charlotte Corday? 

Ans. Charlotte Corday was a maid of Normandy who, 
like Joan of Arc, rose to the occasion and conceived the 
idea of delivering France from proscription and tyrannv 
by killing Marat, which she accomplished by stabbing him 
in his bath, and then paid the penalty on the guillotine. 

152. What was the guillotine? 

Ans. The guillotine was a sharp and heavy knife, 
named from the doctor who invented it as a means of 
prompt and painless execution. It dropped through slots 
like a pile driver and was an improvement on the heads- 
man's axe. 



HISTORY OF FRANCE 49 

153. Did the death of Marat in July, 1793, check the 
Mountainists? 

Ans. Instead of checking the Reign of Terror, the as- 
sassination of Marat drove the Committee of Public 
Safety, the executive agents of the extremists, to greater 
excesses. In Lyons, where the Revolution encountered 
opposition, only the dwellings of the poor were allowed to 
remain; all others were demolished. The queen was be- 
headed about this time and soon after her death twenty- 
one leading Girondists were executed. Hundreds of less 
distinguished victims followed. Seats were arranged 
around the instrument of death, as at a theatre. Christi- 
anity was abolished and Sunday with it. The churches 
were closed, their wealth confiscated. The busts of Marat 
and other ' ' patriots ' ' were set up in place of the images of 
the Virgin and of Christ. The Holy Guillotine took the 
place of the cross.^ 

154. What were some of the reforms or changes 
introduced? 

Ans. a new system of weights and measures, the metric, 
was introduced; the names of the months were changed; 
the month was divided into three periods of ten days 
each, the tenth in each period taking the place of Sunday. 

155. "What may be regarded as the wildest act of the 
Revolutionists? 

Ans. a celebrated but frail beauty was set upon the 
altar of Notre Dame as the Goddess of Reason and pro- 
claimed as an object of homage and adoration. 

156.^ What further changes preceded the end of the 
Reign of Terror? 

Ans. By March and April, 1794, nearly one year after 
they began their desperate cause, the Revolutionists, 
having destroyed all their foes, began to fall on one an- 
other to satisfy their thirst for blood. The Jacobin Club, 
an organization which fed the Revolution by constant 
agitation, was itself now divided into three factions, 
differing as to the degree of violence to be used. Danton, 
who had taken Marat's place as leader of the Revolution, 
became more conservative and condemned the excesses 
and cruelties of the Committee of Public Safety, of which 



50 HISTORY OF FRANCE 

he was no longer a member. Hebert, known as Pere 
Duchesne, led a faction ready for any extreme of com- 
munism and atheism. Robespierre held a middle ground 
and resolved to crush both his opponents. By working 
with Danton he overcame Hebert and within a week after 
the execution of Hebert, Danton was destroyed and Robes- 
pierre stood alone on the top of the mountain. 

157. How did Robespierre use his power as a dictator? 

Ans. He re-established the worship of the supreme 
being instead of the worship of reason. " If God did not 
exist, it would behoove man to invent him. The idea of 
one who watches over oppressed innocence and punishes 
triumphant guilt is, and always will be, popular." So 
the Convention passed a decree that the French people 
acknowledge the existence of the supreme being and 
the immortality of the soul; and the churches that had 
been used as temples of the Goddess of Reason were now 
officially reconsecrated to the worship of God. 

158. Did Robespierre reform the civic procedure as 
he did the religious? 

Ans. No. With all power in his hands, the slaughters 
increased in number and atrocity; two hundred thousand 
prisoners crowded the jails and room for more was gained 
by trying and condemning groups of ten or even fifty at 
a time. Carts bore victims to the scaffold like loads of 
bricks. Benches arranged for the spectacle were rented 
as in the theatre; a special sewer was built to carry off 
the blood. In five weeks, from June 10 to July 17, 1794, 
twelve hundred and eighty-five were guillotined. 

159. Were the provinces of France as cruel as the mob 
of Paris? 

Ans. Matters were even worse in many of the leading 
cities of France. In Nantes the " Republican Baptism " 
consisted in crowding a hundred or more suspected per- 
sons into a vessel and scuttling it in the Loire. A " Re- 
publican Marriage " bound a man and woman together 
and threw them into the river. " Battues " ranged the 
victims in long ranks and mowed them down by cannon 
and musket. Fifteen thousand were destroyed in a month 
in this one city of Nantes, and thirty thousand during the 



HISTORY OF FRANCE 51 

Reign of Terror. Many of the victims were women and 
children. Three hundred orphans were drowned in a 
single night. In Bordeaux, Toulon, and Marseilles the 
scenes were more or less similar. 

160. How were the French Revolutionists regarded 
by the English Whigs who had approved the American 
Revolution? 

Ans. At first the effort of the French people to free 
themselves from the tyranny of an absolute, reckless 
monarchy, as Englishmen had done, was regarded with 
pleasure and satisfaction by Burke, Fox, Wordsworth, 
Shelley, Byron and most Whigs, but when the Girondists 
— the Constitutionalists — fell before the anarchists and 
atheists, most of the Whigs of England turned in horror 
from the French Revolution and when Burke was taunted 
with being a turncoat he asserted that he was an Old 
Whig, not one of the rabid new type. 

161. How long did Robespierre hold the reins of 
power in his own hands? 

Ans. For a period of about three months, till late in 
July, 1794, Robespierre and his creatures drove many to 
insanity and suicide in addition to the multitudes they 
sent to the guillotine. The strain was too great for human 
nature. The reaction came. Success of the armies and the 
realization of the Convention's authority made massacre 
seem uncalled for. Some one in the Convention dared to 
denounce Robespierre as a tyrant. The spell was broken. 
Robespierre was arrested and though he tried to kill him- 
self was hurried to the guillotine with his confederates, 
and France awakened at last from the nightmare of the 
Reign^of Terror, July 28, 1794. 

162. What events happened after Robespierre's fall? 

Ans. Deputies that had been driven from their seats 
in the Convention resumed their places. Christian worship 
was re-established and when a mob of forty thousand in 
October, 1795, advanced to storm the Tuileries where the 
Convention met. Napoleon, a young lieutenant of artillery, 
with well-directed cannon, mowed them down with grape 
shot. The Revolution had produced a genius capable of 
controlling and directing it. 



62 HISTORY OF FRANCE 

163. What was the next step after Napoleon _ quelled 
the Parisian mob? 

Ans. The Convention soon dissolved, declaring its 
labors ended, and the councils and board of directors 
provided for in the new constitution assumed control. 

164. How was the new government organized? 

Ans. There were to be two legislative bodies somewhat 
corresponding to the American House and Senate; a 
Council of hive Hundred and a Council of the Ancients, 
half as large and all over fifty years of age. The executive 
power was vested in a directory or board of five persons. 

165. What did the new government proceed to do? 
Ans. The revolutionists now became propagandists; 

the republic now began to do what it had promised — 
help all those who desired freedom, and such longings for 
social and political equality and freedom were astir that 
French armies were welcomed as deliverers and a band 
of commonwealths were created surrounding France. 

166. Was there any permanent freedom gained in 
countries outside of France? 

Ans. Though the various republics established by 
French armies were short lived, yet there was a general 
gain. The monarchies were never as despotic afterwards 
as before the Revolution. 

167. What were the first new commonwealths formed 
by France? 

Ans. Austria and England were the only formidable 
opponents of the French republic. The directory decided 
to crush the former. Two armies invaded Austria directly, 
while Napoleon with a much smaller army was given the 
task of driving the Austrians out of Italy. This he did, 
crossing the Maritime Alps before they were free from 
snow. As a result of this first campaign of 1796-97, Na- 
poleon- established the Cisalpine Republic in northern 
Italy and also the Ligurian Republic around Genoa. 

168. After establishing two new republics in northern 
Italy, what was Napoleon's further action before returning 
to Paris? 

Ans. The larger armies previously sent into Austria 
having been driven back, instead of returning to Paris 



HISTORY OF FRANCE 53 

when his assigned task in Italy was accompHshed, Napoleon 
climbed the eastern Alps and deployed upon the plains of 
Austria. By threatening Vienna he induced the emperor 
to make an important treaty by which not only was the 
work done in Italy formally acknowledged, but Austria 
ceded her Belgian provinces to the French Republic and 
also valuable provinces on the west side of the Rhine. 

169. What was the next step of the French directory 
after humbling Austria by the genius of Napoleon? 

Ans. The next step was an attack on England by way of 
Egypt. It was Napoleon who proposed the indirect attack 
on England's eastern possessions rather than the direct 
attack across the English Channel. By conquering and 
colonizing Egypt, France would control eastern trade 
and block England's route to India. The directory, more- 
over, was glad to send the dangerously able Napoleon out 
of France for a time. 

170. How well did Napoleon's eastern scheme succeed? 

Ans. Napoleon conquered Egypt in the celebrated 
Battle of the Pyramids, where he aroused the enthusiasm 
of his men by the famous words, " Soldiers, from yonder 
pyramids forty centuries are looking down upon you." 
All lower Egypt was his, but Nelson destroyed his fleet 
August 1, 1798, and Admiral Sidney Smith prevented his 
capture of Acre in Syria, after Gaza and Jaffa had fallen. 

171. Did France succeed in establishing republics 
outside of Italy? 

Ans. During 1798 and January, 1799, the French set 
up three new republics. First, by means of an insurrection 
in Rome and by making a prisoner of the pope, the Roman, 
or Tiberian, jxepublic was established. i\ext, the Swiss 
cantons were united under the name of the Helvetic 
Republic; and thirdly, the King of Naples was driven out 
of his kingdom and the ParthenopEean Republic started. 

172. Did the successes of the French in 1798 continue? 

Ans. The year 1799 was, on the whole, quite disastrous 
for the French. Napoleon was unable to carry his victories 
beyond Egypt and by the loss of his fleet was unable to 
move anywhere freely. A coalition of the leading states 
of Europe was quickly formed, encouraged by Nelson's 



54 HISTORY OF FRANCE 

victory; the French, were driven out of Italy and the re- 
publics at Rome and Naples were abolished. The French 
royalists plucked up courage, while the Jacobins began 
to threaten another Reign of Terror. 

173. What was the outcome of the defeats and dangers 
of 1799? 

Ans. Napoleon, hearing of the conditions in France* 
boldly slipped through the English fleet, reached Paris 
and was hailed with acclaim. The majority of the people 
felt the need of his power; some of the directors agreed 
with him to overthrow the government and, when the 
Council of Five Hundred opposed his measures, he 
promptly drove them out, November 9, 1799. Napoleon 
became a French Cromwell and was master of the situa- 
tion. The republic was over and the Revolution at an end. 

174. What form of government took the place of the 
republic? 

Ans. a new constitution, the fourth in the decade 
since 1789, was prepared, submitted to the people and 
heartily approved. This vested the executive power in 
three consuls for ten years. The first consul really exer- 
cised the authority of the three, and Napoleon, of course, 
was first consul, exercising a veiled military despotism. 

175. Were all the functions of government absorbed 
by the three consuls? 

Ans. The ordinary functions of government were still 
carried on by a council of state, a tribunate, a legislature 
and a senate. But the members of all these bodies were 
appointed or approved more or less directly by the con- 
suls; or, in other words, France was such a republic as 
Rome was under Augustus Caesar. Names and forms 
continued as before, but it was one-man power. 

176. How did the great powers of Europe regard this 
failure of the republican idea and return to monarchical 
rule? 

Ans. Austria and ^ England refused to recognize the 
success of a usurper in place of the divine rights of the 
Bourbons. 



HISTORY OF FRANCE 55 

177. How did Napoleon enforce his position and that 
of France? 

Ans. In the spring of 1800 Napoleon, for a second time, 
crossed the Alps into Italy and defeated an Austrian army 
three times as large as his own in the battle of Marengo. 
Moreau gained another victory at Hohenlinden, and 
Frances II of Austria signed a treaty which allowed the 
Rhine to become the eastern boundary of France, Febru- 
ary, 1801, and which also recognized the Cisalpine, Ligu- 
rian, Helvetian, and Batavian Republics. England also 
signed the Treaty of Amiens March, 1802. Napoleon had 
gained the recognition of all his formidable foes. 

178. Having won success abroad, what was Napoleon 
able to do for internal affairs in France? 

Ans. Napoleon was now free to use his enormous 
energies in the arts of peace, as amazing as his stupendous 
acts of war. He built a miHtary road by the Simplon 
Pass, superior in engineering to any of the famous old 
Roman roads over difficult passes. He revised the laws 
of France by the Code Napoleon, not unlike the work of 
the Roman Justinian. By it the work of the Revolution 
was secured. It recognized the equality of noble and 
peasant before the law. It is today the basis of law in 
France, Belgium, Holland, western Germany, Switzer- 
land, and Italy. It did more to secure liberation in western 
Europe than anything else has done. 

179. What was Napoleon's reward for his services to 
France? 

Ans. He was made consul for life, by a vote of the 
people, with the right to name his successor, August, 
1802, and in 1804, after a conspiracy against his life and 
some activity on the part of his former foes, he was made 
emperor by an almost unanimous vote, less than three 
thousand voting against the decree submitted to the 
people, 

180. Did the change in France from a republic to a 
monarchy also change the other republics which France 
had created? 

Ans. Within five years all the surrounding republics 
which France had created were changed into monarchies 
dependent upon France or became a part of France proper . 



56 HISTORY OF FRANCE 

181. What were the new kingdoms established by 
Napoleon soon after he assumed the monarchy? 

Ans. Napoleon crowned himself King of Italy in Milan 
with the iron crown of the Lombards, thus changing the 
Cisalpine Republic into a kingdom; the Ligurian Republic, 
with Genoa as a center and including part of Sardinia, 
was annexed to France, and the Batavian Republic became 
the Kingdom of Holland with Napoleon's brother, Louis 
Bonaparte, as king, 1806. He also made his oldest brother, 
Joseph, King of Naples. 

182. Did the powers of Europe accept Napoleon's new 
movements peacefully? 

Ans. The great powers of Europe dreaded the empire 
of France more than the republic. Napoleon's military 
despotism was a menace to Europe and from his assump- 
tion of the crown, in 1804, to his final defeat in 1815, coali- 
tion after coalition was formed against him, with England 
always leading. 

183. What was the character of the first coalition 
against the Emperor Napoleon? 

Ans. In 1805, England, Russia, Austria and Sweden 
united against Napoleon, and Napoleon promptly massed 
a large army to invade England, but when his fleet failed 
to do its part he turned on the Austrians and Russians 
as they approached the Rhine, defeated the Austrians at 
Ulm, marched through Vienna once more, and gained one 
of his greatest victories, Austerlitz, over one hundred 
thousand Austrians and Russians. 

184. What were the rewards of Austerlitz? 

Ans. Austria was forced to yield Venetia. Sixteen 
German states, declaring themselves independent, formed 
the Confederation of the Rhine, with Napoleon as pro- 
tector. Francis II was obliged to resign the crown of the 
Holy Roman Empire and content himself with that of 
Austria alone. Thus Napoleon with almost a single blow 
shattered an empire that had existed for eight hundred 
years. 

185. What check on Napoleon's success resembled 
his previous check in Egypt and Syria? 

Ans. Nelson won Trafalgar, off the coast of Spain, 
October 21, 1805, two days after Napoleon's success at 
Ulm, and England was safe from invasion. 



HISTORY OF FRANCE 67 

186. What were Napoleon's movements after humbling 
Austria? 

Ans. Prussia, angered by Napoleon's insulting treat- 
ment, risked war and lost at Jena in 1806, and Napoleon, 
in less than a month, crushed the military power that 
Frederick the Great had consolidated half a century before. 
In 1807 Tsar Alexander I felt the power of Napoleon at , 
Friedland and sued for peace. Prussia was stripped of half 
her domains and part was given to Saxony as the Grand 
Duchy of Warsaw and part became the Kingdom of 
Westphalia with Napoleon's brother, Jerome Bonaparte, as 
king. Prussia was now virtually a dependency of France. 

187. What was the famous continental system of 
Napoleon? 

Ans. The continental system of Napoleon was the 
effort he made to strike England through her commerce, 
as he was unable to reach her directly. He issued two 
famous decrees, named from the cities he happened to be 
in at the time, Berlin and Milan, which closed all the ports 
of the continent against English ships and forbade any 
European nation holding any intercourse with Great 
Britain, all of whose ports he declared closed. 

188. Was Napoleon able to enforce his continental 
system? 

Ans. So powerful was his control of Europe that 
Napoleon was able to very seriously cripple England's 
trade, but this injured France also. Portugal opened its 
ports to England and the prince regent was promptly 
deposed by Napoleon, who sent a marshal to take posses- 
sion of the country, and then Napoleon forced the Bourbon 
King of Spain to resign his crown, which was bestowed on 
Joseph Bonaparte, 1808. Naples, where Joseph had been 
reigning, was given to Murat, Napoleon's brother-in-law. 
Thus Napoleon made and unmade kings and distributed 
his family over western Europe. 

189. What was the result of Napoleon's bold usurpa- 
tions? 

Ans. Spain and Portugal flew to arms and England 
sent Sir Arthur Wellesley, afterwards the Duke of Welling- 
ton, to Spain to help. The French were driven out of 



58 HISTORY OF FRANCE 

Portugal and forced north of the Ebro in Spain. Joseph 
fled in dismay and Napoleon was forced to take the field, 
himself. He entered Spain with a large army and re- 
placed his brother on the throne at Madrid. 

190. Did any other country dare to engage Napoleon 
in war? 

Ans. Austria took advantage of Napoleon's absence 
in Spain to declare war, but the great strategist crossed 
the Danube, won Wagram, and again rode through the 
familiar streets of Vienna, and Austria was still further 
dismembered by tracts of land going either to France or 
neighboring states. This was in 1809. 

191. What were some of the further signs of Napoleon's 
treatment of opposition? 

Ans. Pius VII opposed the continental system and 
Napoleon added the Papal States to the French Empire. 
The pope excommunicated Napoleon, and the latter 
arrested the pontiff and held him a prisoner in France for 
four years. Louis Bonaparte, King of Holland, also dis- 
approved his brother's policy, as it was ruining the trade 
of the Dutch. Napoleon thereupon annexed Holland to 
France. 

192. What final act of haughty power did Napoleon 
now consummate? 

Ans. In 1810, the year after the overthrow of Austria. 
Napoleon divorced his wife, Josephine, of lowly origin like 
himself, and married the archduchess, Maria Louisa, 
daughter of Francis II of Austria. This was a matter of 
politics rather than passion or affection. Napoleon had a 
feeling that he might stand better with other royal families 
if allied with one, and he also ardently desired an heir 
for his throne. 

193. When may Napoleon be considered to be at the 
height of his power and glory? 

Ans, In 1811, after a son was born to Napoleon and 
the daughter of the House of Hapsburg, Napoleon may be 
regarded as at the summit of his marvelous career. His 
empire stretched from the Baltic to southern Italy and 
embraced France, Belgium, Holland, northwestern Ger- 
many, Italy west of the Apennines as far as Naples, be- 



HISTORY OF FRANCE 59 

sides Venetia at the head of the Adriatic. Only allied, 
vassal or dependent states surrounded his own large 
empire. His brothers, relatives or marshals occupied 
ancient thrones. He was King of Italy and Protector of 
the Confederation of the Rhine. Prussia and Austria were 
subject to his will and Russia and Denmark were allies. 

194. Why was the splendor of Napoleon, like the 
splendor of Louis XIV, sure to fall? 

Ans. First, the diverse elements of which the empire 
was composed were as yet too loosely joined to outlive 
the life of its founder. Secondly, the continental system 
inflicted much suffering in all the maritime nations of 
Europe and caused much discontent. This had drawn 
Napoleon into war with Spain, which resulted in much 
trouble to him later. Thirdly, France had now recruited 
her exhausted armies with mere boys unfit to bear the 
strain of Napoleon's rapid campaigns and the taxes 
necessary to meet expenses added fearful burdens. Fourth, 
the crowd of dispossessed princes and aristocrats were 
naturally watching their chances of return. Fifth, 
those who had welcomed Napoleon as a deliverer, as the 
carrier-out of the French ideals of liberty and equality, 
now saw him adopt imperial manners and set aside his 
plebeian wife that he might wed royalty, which was 
looked on as a betrayal of the people's cause. 

195. What was Napoleon's first obvious blunder and 
failure? 

Ans. When the tsar entered a coalition against Na- 
poleon in 1812 and the latter entered the confines of Rus- 
sia with half a million men, though he won a costly victory 
at Borodino, he found Moscow deserted, and shortly on 
fire, depriving him of food and shelter and obliging him 
to attempt return amid the hardships of approaching 
winter. Thousands perished in long black files, frozen to 
death and circling each camp fire, while other thousands 
were picked off by fierce Cossacks ever hanging like wolves 
on the army's trail; three hundred thousand perished; 
one hundred thousand were made prisoners, and only 
one hundred thousand recrossed the Niemen. 

196. What was the inevitable result of this fearful 
failure of the invasion of Russia? 

Ans. a sixth coalition was formed by Russia, Prussia, 



60 HISTORY OF FRANCE 

England and Sweden, By gigantic efforts, Napoleon 
raised a new army of three hundred thousand men and 
won two battles over the Russians and Prussians, but at 
Leipsic Napoleon met so many allies that the three days' 
battle was called the " Battle of the Nations." Napoleon 
lost and was for the first time forced to retreat into France. 

197. What happened to France after Napoleon's defeat 
in the three-days Battle of the Nations at Leipsic, 1813? 

Ans. The -allies poured over the frontiers of France. 
Napoleon struggled hard against the invaders, but his 
most trusted officers deserted him. Napoleon abdicated 
in favor of his infant son, but Paris surrendered to the 
allies and the Bourbons sat once more on the throne of 
France in the person of Louis XVI 's brother, called Louis 
XVIII. 

198. What became of Napoleon after his abdication, 
1814? 

Ans. Napoleon was banished to the little island of 
Elba in the Mediterranean and allowed to retain his title 
of emperor and some hundreds of his old retainers, 

199. What became of his empire? 

Ans. Commissioners met in Vienna to readjust the 
map of Europe. It was a laborious task to settle the con- 
flicting claims and it took nearly a year, from September, 
1814, to June, 1815. The great effort was to put everything 
back as nearly as possible in the shape it was before the 
French Revolution of twenty-five years before. There 
was no regard for the people, only for the princes. Thrones 
were righted and their legitimate despots invited to re- 
mount them. Germany and Italy were split up among 
many petty tyrants and the Bourbons were restored in 
Spain and Naples as well as France. Temporarily every- 
thing went back to its former relations, but the Revolution 
had gone too far to allow the people to be confined again 
as before for any length of time. 

200. How was the dream of the royalists who strove 
to bring back the good old days of the former monarchies 
rudely disturbed? 

Ans. In March, 1815, when many were feeling dis- 
appointed at the reactionary Bourbon rule (which called 



HISTORY OF FRANCE 61 

this the nineteenth year of Louis XVIH's reign) and long- 
ings for Napoleon were being nidulged, he suddenly ap- 
peared in the south of France, won all hearts by his 
patriotic address, and pushed on to Paris, greeted ar- 
dently by all his old soldiers and officers, Louis was 
deserted and fled. 

201. What was the outcome of this sudden return of 
Napoleon? 

Ans. The congress at Vienna was still in session meting 
out the land when the news reached them that Napoleon 
was in France. A seventh and last coalition was at once 
formed and a million men poured over the French border. 
Napoleon desired peace, but there was no peace with him 
on the throne. Hoping to win by his old-time speed, 
Napoleon hastened into Belgium with one hundred and 
thirty thousand men in order to crush the English and 
Prussians. He defeated the Prussians under Bliicher and 
then met the English at Waterloo, June 18, 1815, and, as 
all the world knows, lost after a hard fight. 

202. What was the end of Napoleon after Waterloo? 

Ans. This time he was banished to a lonely rock in the 
South Atlantic, St. Helena, where he was carefully guarded 
by the British till his death in 1821. 

203. What has been the history of France since the fall 
of Napoleon and the restoration of the Bourbons? 

Ans. The history of France for the century since the 
fall of Napoleon and the restoration of the Bourbons has 
been a struggle between the new ideals of the Revolution 
and the monarchical tendencies of the conservative and 
aristocratic classes. Notwithstanding reverses, the re- 
publican ideals have survived and finally won their way, 
developing the powerful French nation of today that has 
astonished the world with its virility and resourcefulness. 

204. What was the first marked episode in France 
after the second restoration of the Bourbons? 

Ans. Louis XVIII paid more heed to the new ideas of 
the people after he regained the throne and affairs moved 
with tranquility until his death in 1824, but Charles X 
began a reactionary policy and the people rose in revolt 
and drove him into exile and placed Louis Philippe, Duke 
of Orleansr on the throne in 1830. 



62 , HISTORY OP FRANCE 

205. How did France fare under the House of Orleans? 

Ans. Louis Philippe had travelled extensively and 
suffered the ups and downs of fortune. Consequently the 
people and he felt more kindly toward each other, and 
under a new constitution much satisfaction was antici- 
pated. His title, " King of the French," evidenced his 
democratic intentions. But the leaven was working, the 
republican party was steadily gaining strength, and in 
1848 Louis Philippe fled to England as plain Mr. Smith. 
The second republic was established and Louis Napoleon 
Bonaparte, nephew of the great Napoleon, was chosen 
president December 20, 1848. 

206. Did the republican ideas that kept working in 
France affect other countries in Europe? 

Ans. In almost every country there were uprisings 
after the French change of rulers in 1830. Existing con- 
stitutions were liberalized in some countries so as to give 
the people a larger share in the government, while in some 
others the governments grew more cruel and despotic 
than before. On the whole, there was a gain in liberty, 
and Belgium, in 1831, became an independent state, and 
after the establishment of the second republic in 1848 
the constitutions of Europe underwent further changes in 
the interests of the people. 

207. How did the second Napoleon succeed as presi- 
dent? 

Ans. Louis Napoleon Bonaparte succeeded so well in 
imitating his uncle's methods that in three years, after a 
quarrel with the Legislative Assembly, he suddenly dis- 
solved that body, placed its leaders under arrest and ap- 
pealed to the country to endorse his act. This the people 
approved by a vote of over seven millions in favor and 
much less than one million against. They even rewarded 
him for it by making him president for ten years, or 
practically a dictator. The next year, 1852, by a similar 
popular vote, he was made emperor and took the title of 
Napoleon III. 

208. Who was Napoleon II? 

Ans. The son of Napoleon I and Maria Louisa as heir 
apparent was called the King of Rome. After* Napoleon's 



HISTORY OF FRANCE 63 

. downfall he lived at his grandfather's court at Vienna as 
the Duke of Reichstadt. Although he never ruled in France 
he is known as Napoleon II. He was a delicate child and 
died on the verge of manhood at twenty. 

209. What were the principal events of Napoleon Ill's 
career? 

Ans. Napoleon III had some of his great uncle's taste 
for war and engaged in three within his reign of less than 
twenty years. The first of- the three was with Russia in 
the Crimean War, 1853-56; the second was the Austro- 
Sardinian war, 1859 ; and the third was the Franco-Prussian 
war of 1870-71, so disastrous to France. 

210. What were the causes of the Franco-Prussian 
war of 1870-71? 

Ans. The main causes of this war were French jealousy 
of Prussia's growing power and the French Emperor's 
desire to stand well with his people by emulating the 
achievements of his uncle. 

211. What was the character of the war between 
France and Prussia? 

Ans. Napoleon started the war by declaring that 
Prussia was scheming to increase her power by placing a 
prince on the vacant throne of Spain, and though, to please 
France, Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern offered to with- 
draw, Napoleon, making further humiliating demands, 
which were refused, invaded Germany, but was speedily 
hurled back, defeated at Gravelotte in August, 1870, made 
a prisoner at Sedan, and in January, 1871, Paris was com- 
pelled to surrender after a siege of a few months. Napoleon 
died in England in 1873. 

212. What were the terms exacted from France by the 
successful Germans in 1871? 

Ans. France was required to surrender the greater 
part of the Rhinish provinces of Alsace and Lorraine 
that had once belonged to Germany; to pay an indemnity 
of about one billion dollars, the largest sum ever de- 
manded by a conqueror; and to allow parts of French 
territory to be occupied by German garrisons until the sum 
was paid. 



64 HISTORY OP FRANCE 

213. How did France act in regard to the German 
terms? 

Ans. The Red Republicans, or Communists, of Paris 
shut the gates of the city, declaring the capital would 
never submit to such humiliation and a second Reign of 
Terror was started, but the government suppressed the 
anarchists and restored order after the Tuileries, the 
Hotel de Ville and many other public buildings had been 
burnt. The Third Republic was set up under the presi- 
dency of M, Thiers, the eminent historian, the indemnity 
was paid in an astonishingly short time, and France has 
shown every sign of permanent growth and power. 

214. Why did France enter the present war? 

Ans. Prance was attacked by Germany because her 
reply was unsatisfactory as to her stand in case of a 
German-Russo war. ..Germany claims that airmen from 
France dropped bombs on Nuremberg before Germany's 
declaration of war. The newspapers of Nuremberg, how- 
ever, first heard of the outrage in a dispatch from Berlin 
and make no mention of such an occurrence. 

215. Had Germany reason to believe that France 
would attack her in case of war with Russia? 

Ans. Prance was Russia's ally. Prom the time of her 
defeat in 1871, she had mourned her lost territory of 
Alsace-Lorraine. In Paris the statues of Strasburg and 
Metz were kept in the circle of the statues of French cities 
and on each anniversary of their loss to Prance were 
draped in mourning. Revanche, or revenge, was the watch- 
word of Prance, while that of Germany was Saigner a blanc, 
or a threat to "bleed white" or ruin Prance in case of 
another war. A conflict between Germany and Prance 
seemed but a matter of time. 



